Dad helped me up to my feet while keeping me held close in his arms. The fear chemicals and adrenaline were still racing through me right now, but having someone ground me in an emotional sense was keeping me from slipping back. I rested my cheek against him until the haziness faded away, and once everything became clear again I gently parted us so I could find my writing slate. I was fortunate that I had cast it aside before having a meltdown otherwise I’d be looking for a brick of charcoal.
I found my bag and board lying off to the side under one of the stools, but as I knelt to grab it I shuddered from the sudden shift in the muscles along my back. I reached around to feel what had changed and felt that my scales were once again just as they had been before with no trace of those spikes anywhere. I flexed and twisted my back to see if there was any difference after their arrival, but everything moved just the same as always. Retractable skewers running along my back and down my tail was something I never thought a kobold would have, but there was a lot I still didn’t know about my own species. My exhausted sigh was the only audible cue I could display to show my overall frustration given the circumstances.
This shit was just too much for me to handle right now. I dropped my stuff on the worktable and took a seat in the stool before me so I could properly lean on the table for a minute. Fucking elders and their magic hovering eye robots making me lose my damn mind in public was a new low they could stoop to. I opened my eyes and looked at the table before me, and wouldn’t you know it the sapphire I had set there before was gone. Great, so not only were the secret cult kobolds trying to mess with me, they also stole from me while I was away from home.
As my temper flared up again, so too did the limiter runes begin to defy me in an attempt to power the nonexistent electricity conjuring system. No, the limiters weren’t the issue, it was my mana source. Every time my anger spiked there was a noticeable pulse from my core, which seemed to overload the runes enough that they were forced open as far as they could go. Digging deep into my human memories, I dredged up one of those breathing techniques that people said would help with stress. Four second inhale, hold for four more, exhale four seconds, wait four again and repeat. It didn’t feel like it was helping much, but it was helping me focus on keeping my thoughts confined to the present moment.
Dad had gone and removed the barricade from the hobby room door and had fetched me a cup of water for me down in one go. I suppose when you’re having one point twenty-one gigawatts of electricity buzzing in your head the feeling of thirst gets overridden by the distress. A single claw tapped on my slate three times, signifying that he wanted me to say something. I complied, though it felt like nothing I could tell him would make any sense unless he could read my thoughts directly.
“I’m okay now. When we were eating I felt one of the elders watching me. One of the BAD elders. Their stares use magic for some reason, so every time they’re around I can tell where they’re looking at me from. They used these hovering eyes that nobody can see to distract me, then were somehow looking at me from high above at the top of the city. Feeling that stare on me sent me into a blind rage and I don’t know why. I’m scared. I have spikes in my back I never knew about, the bad guys are doing things I don’t understand, and they’re sneaking into our home when we’re not around to steal from us.”
Bahruk reached a hand out towards me, which I shied away from. I wiped the slate clean and wrote another block of text for him to digest.
“Please don’t. I almost hurt you with that lightning, I mean just look at the sword you stuck in the floor. It’s gone, completely erased. Whatever that old bastard did made all of my magic react by going into self-defense mode, and anyone could have wound up like that. I need to get better control of my powers before they do something like that again. I’m thankful for your quick thinking, and I genuinely wish that I could explain this all better, but for now I need to be alone, isolated so I don’t hurt anyone. Just for tonight I’m going to sleep here in this room, and I want you to block up the door enough so that none of my brothers can fit in. I promise that I’ll get better, I just need a little time.”
His eyes were downcast after he finished reading as though he had been lost by my words. He slowly stood up and walked towards the door, but upon the precipice he halted to address me without meeting my eyes.
“I love you Kayrux, and I’ll do anything it takes to keep you safe. I’m not going to lie and say that I’m not afraid as well. Not of my daughter, but what the world wants to do with her instead. Even when thunder was crackling across your scales and that light shone from your eyes, I was still ready to reach out for you even if it would mean my end. You’ve shown me that you’re willing to trust me, now it’s time for me to show you that same trust.”
Without another word he left the room and forced the cave to bend to his will, forming a barrier of stone over the door with a narrow window as big as a head. Seeing him leave filled my heart with the oppressive weight of shame. The anguish he had tried to refrain from showing still slipped through his stoicism and had left a lingering shadow over my soul. Without anyone to witness my pitiful self, I wept silently atop the wooden surface of the table.
…
I gave myself one hour of self-pity to clear my head before returning to a rational mindset. I had to make progress in understanding my situation as quickly as possible, beginning with the physical changes I had undergone. Preparing a fresh sheet of parchment and my inkpot, I began to use the mirror as a tool for cataloging my physical appearance as it was visible. Sensor runes also helped me to discern details that would otherwise be impossible to know without proper measuring equipment, though I still was operating under an assumption that my metrics were similar to Earth standards.
By my guess I was around the mark of four and a half feet in height, though on the Otes scale I was a crisp 680. My scales were that same deep sapphire blue with silver lines every so often, with a majority of the lines appearing along my things, back, and tail. My front side used to be teal when I was a hatchling, but over time it has deepened and lost some of its greenish tint. I flexed my hands and toes to see that my black claws were still the same, and a few experimental pokes at my horns confirmed that they too were unchanged.
Then began the list of the things that I noticed were different. First was my eyes, which I had only seen once before when compelled by foul magics to gaze into the mirror atop the dragon altar. The brilliant yellow orbs that I viewed the world with were the same shape and color as that fateful day, but there was something about them that was off. As though it wasn’t me looking back at me from within the mirror. I pushed that thought aside to retain a strictly factual representation on my notes and switched to looking at my back as best as I could through the mirror.
I stood there with my neck craned around to see the mirror behind me as best as I could while experimenting with the muscles along my spine. I remembered the sensation of them retracting and the specific shape of the muscles that had moved, but why did they not respond to my input? I closed my eyes and focused on the region in both the physical sense as well as the magical sense and made a startling discovery. The mana line that ran from my source and down my back was no longer a uniform line, but instead had split off at regular intervals along what must be each vertebrae. Perhaps I could use this development to map out the area with sensor runes. I tried just that and got a clear picture of my own spine in my mind, which was admittedly disturbing to visualize consciously. I could see the little knots of muscle, the grooves in each bone that acted as pivots for the spikes, and each spine nestled in their little space.
Using my mana as a template, I began to map out the muscles required for extending these spines before flexing the area anymore. With a bit of practice I was able to move those muscles voluntarily, but the spines wouldn’t extend properly until another muscle at the base of my skull was pulled. The moment I realized this and pulled on that muscle, the whole length of my spine all the way to the tip of my tail tensed and slid uncomfortably as a row of sharp black spikes parted my scales like a set of sharpened nails. I recorded this information as accurately as I could before the muscles tired and pulled the spines back into their hidden sheath, the sensation of which nearly made me puke from the utter wrongness of it.
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Deep breaths Kay, there were much weirder animals back on Earth. Come on, think about what could be causing this. Faerkurch said that dragon blood would influence how a kobold’s body developed, but I had two different kinds of blood, as well as some kind of influence from a third dragon. If the statue atop the altar was an accurate portrayal of the dragon of this city, then I should have large plate-like growths along my shoulders and back, and a terrible spike protruding from my forearms. None of those were present, so either the influence of the dragon was less of making one resemble itself or I was more similar to one of the other deified beasts messing with my shape.
Something about that Idea kept nagging at me, as if I were forgetting something else that was being touched upon by their invisible powers. My mind, how could I skim over the fact they were trying to mess with my mind? I’ve had people touching the inside of my head three times now, so one would expect me to be more conscious of these kinds of things. Damn it all, if only there was someone who could help me look into my own head and watch out for these kinds of things. Hold on, maybe there wasn’t someone, but a something.
Rising from the table wearily, I staggered my way over to the sitting area in the corner that would be my bed tonight. I probably should have asked Yabtin beforehand, but he would understand that I needed the space tonight. He could use my bed for all I cared, it wasn’t like I kept anything I didn’t want anyone getting their hands on there. I flopped into the cozy little bowl in the floor and sat myself up in a cross legged position as though I were about to meditate. Well, I kinda was about to meditate, but probably not the way other people did.
I looked inwards at my own source, the great ocean of swirling magical currents passing through one another, and made a mental hand once again as I had before on the moon-fall. Instead of adjusting the current like before, this hand was reaching out with a much more delicate intention. Comprehension, are you in there? I’m not here to evict you or anything, I just want to talk.
It took a few minutes of me swishing my hand around in the vortex of mana before I felt something different pass by the hand. I quickly reacted by spinning it around and wrapping the hand around it and reforming it into a bubble around the foreign mana presence to keep it contained. Inside of my mental barrier was that same red energy, and after the swirling mana within the ball slowed it opened up and began to push words into my mind as though it were writing them on my brain in tiny words.
“Comprehension offers greeting.”
Hey buddy I had a… wait, are you smaller than you were before?
“Correct.”
What’s the deal with that? Oh shit, don’t tell me you’re fading away or something. I need you to talk to people.
“Comprehension fragment dwindling. Cannot speak directly to Kayrux, too risky. Mana currents within source turbulent, eroding Comprehension. Original integrity 67%, current integrity 21%.”
Is there any way I can stop you from falling apart, maybe piece you back together?
“Possible. Comprehension requires mana to repair self, source mana too strong for Comprehension collection. Should collection occur, Comprehension detonation assured. Provide stabilized mana supply, Comprehension engage in self-repair procedure.”
Alright, but if I do this are you going to turn on me? I can just let you erode away and figure out the kobold language without you.
“Impossible. Comprehension is not a whole mind. Independent action not possible, Comprehension belongs to Kayrux. Ingestion of damaged mana stone allowed Comprehension to exist as part of source, exist to serve Kayrux.”
You’re a part of me because I ate you? I suppose that makes sense. We can work on getting you some edible mana or whatever you called it later, right now I need to ask you something.
“Comprehension serves.”
Okay, I need you to look around in my head and source for anything that isn’t supposed to be there. If any not-Kayrux thing is happening in there I want to know immediately. Is that something you can do?
“Affirmative. Comprehension will do as requested, even if request requires self-destruction.”
No Comprehension, I need you to stay alive. Well, as alive as you are now. I want to know if there’s any funny business going on in my core or in my head, but I want you to prioritize keeping yourself safe. Do you understand?
“Comprehension comprehends Kayrux intent. Priority one: serve Kayrux. Priority two: preserve Comprehension. Priority three: continuation of repairs and translation functionality.”
I can work with that. So how exactly am I supposed to fix you, and will fixing you make you different?
“Method of repair: known. Comprehension is capable of creating a schematic of a rune system capable of facilitating a stabilized mana output for Comprehension. Answer to query: unknown. Comprehension lacks knowledge of what will happen if integrity reaches 100%. Possible scenarios include: full integration into Kayrux source, restoration of lost functions, restoration of Comprehension living memories, reclamation of free will, or formation of mana stone within organic compartment of Kayrux.”
Some of those options sound better than others, but for now let's both hope that fixing you up doesn’t make me grow any mana stones. Back to the rune talk, what kind of array did you have in mind? Is there some way you can display-
As soon as the thought was made, a mental image of the runes was drawn in the same way as the words were. The design was just like something I would make: a big chunky limiter hooked up to a web of five collectors, each then feeding into a limiter connected to one big collector that would hold a tiny bubble of stabilized mana still within my source. I went ahead and began forming the array on a mana line I seldom used leading into my left shoulder, and with each placed rune I could feel an affirmative ping from the red speck held motionless in my grasp. The completed system was ready, and after double checking with Comprehension that all was in place I opened the mana line. The magic energy flowed through the system at a painfully slow rate, just as intended, and began to force a microscopic dot of mana to stop flowing within my source.
I moved Comprehension close to it and allowed it to pass within the bubble around it, and after a moment of struggling it was absorbed by the red blip.
“Comprehension integrity 22%. Estimated repair rate factoring in erosion rate: 47 days until completion.”
Hold on a minute, why would it take so long? Can’t I just fix you up here and now?
“Negative. Repair must proceed slowly. Consuming too much stabilized mana would dilute Comprehension until functionality erased. Highest success chance requires longer processing time.”
That checks out, but what if I just kept you here in this bubble to prevent any further erosion?
“Illogical. Comprehension must discern threats present to Kayrux. Calculated erosion rate to repair rate factors in exploration of mana source for potential threat. Comprehension must ensure safety of host.”
You make a compelling argument Comprehension. I get the feeling I can trust you to keep yourself safe in there, but I want to be sure that things won’t end badly for us. Is there any way you can get my attention quickly?
A static noise filled my ears for a second, making me shake my head.
Okay, now what if I want to get in touch with you? Maybe… a name, one that we probably won’t ever run into around here that I can think of to get you to respond. Comprehension is fine, but it’s also a common word.
“Kayrux desires it, Comprehension accepts.”
Alright, so what name do you want.
“Comprehension does not want.”
Okay, but what name works best?
“Unknown.”
Work with me here! Just pick one that fits, or just go with the logical choice.
“Kayrux already knows what name would work best. Kayrux is thinking it right now.”
What, Charles?
“Correct.”
Charles the mind reading dot, named after my goldfish from Earth. How oddly fitting. Will you be alright if I let you go back to drifting Charles?
“Affirmative.”
Alright, godspeed little buddy. I popped the mental bubble I had held Charles within, and in an instant he vanished within the stream of glowing mana within me. I looked back to the rune array set up to feed him and put mental pins in it to ensure it wouldn’t move, even when I was asleep. Good luck buddy, I hope you find something to report soon. I retreated from my meditative state just long enough to realize just how tired I was as my head sank into the sheets for a well deserved night of sleep.