7th of An, 225 years since megados eruption
This headache has been getting worse every week. Most of the time it feels like a constant buzzing, but sometimes there's a sudden piercing pain that lasts for hours. Today's was especially painful; on a scale of 1-10, around a 6.
Obviously, there's something wrong. However, I'm lazy. Normally, getting a diagnosis from a trained medical dragon is a lengthy and irritating procedure. Luckily for me, I'm that (un)trained medical dragon (unlicensed). Which means I can take all the shortcuts I want.
Shortcut #1; Skip checking for parasites and cleaning by using high temperature flames. No known parasite can survive 2800 degrees!
Shortcut #2; Fill mouth, nose, and ears with mild poison. Ingest same poison. This should kill most internal parasites.
Shortcut #3; To check on brain, dislocate tongue to stretch into nasal cavity. Cast strong spell above head. Focus on the taste of mana traveling through the brain. Repeat to get clear image of brain.
Shortcut #4; Manipulate blood flowing through brain, decreasing to minimum. If pain stops, cause is related to blood flow. Pain did not stop.
Shortcut #5; Enter into own mind palace, then break out using 'manipulate memory'. Conscious should be within conscious. Check for potential irregularities. Move to unconscious and repeat. Reminder; do not cast 'erase memory' while in conscious
I just finished #4. So far I haven't found anything unusual. I'm writing this now because I have no idea how long #5 will take. Maybe it'll only take a day. Maybe a week. Maybe another 100 years. Well, probably not.
23rd of Ar, 225 years since megados eruption
Things are getting annoying again. ██ hid my mind palace. I didn't even know they can do that. They're doing something, and their lack of explanation isn't doing them any favors.
All I could see was the ice cave where I was born. The exit was blocked by ██, preventing me from seeing the rest of my mind palace. Ironically, my strong mind palace meant I couldn't just break out of the ice cave. I had to give up and move on to my conscious.
That was mostly normal. The problem was when I tried to go deeper into my unconscious, I sort of... blacked out? The last thing I saw was my corpse, which I don't think I need to explain why that's weird.
Then I woke up to an unpleasant amount of bleeding from my eyes. Probably due to the dangerous shortcuts I took. Notably, my tongue is still dislocated. It'll take a few months to fix naturally, or a week if I spend time re-locating it. Fun fact, the back of my throat tastes like rusty iron.
Most annoying of all, there's a messenger crow waiting for me. The council wants my neutral, uninformed opinion on something. Did they forget what happened last time they asked for my opinion?
Where's Iesmo? I need her to make me a punching bag. And a stress ball. And a chew toy. I really don't want to have to hunt a troll to chew on.
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Excerpt from "The illusion of extinction", written 366 After Megados
...However, it is nearly impossible to be certain that something is extinct. For 6000 years, it was believed that angels were extinct. However, dragon lord Vildra encountered and killed a hidden angel, and since then a few more angels are suspected to still exist.
Similarly, demons may still exist, locked away in the minds of ancient titans. It is rather difficult to prove they do still exist, though the demon virus must originate somewhere. A different widespread theory is that fragments of demons persist within the minds of sapients, particularly those with strong desires. If enough fragments collect together somehow, then a demon may be able to reform. Of course, this idea is dumb. It requires that all of the fragments belong to a single demon, or else...
...many claim that dragons will soon go extinct. Unfortunately, due to no one monitoring the population or whereabouts of dragons, it will be impossible to say whether or not dragons are extinct. Additionally, unlike the demons and angels before, dragons are not being actively hunted.
"To think that my daughter would avenge my mother. Fate sure can be ironic."
"Why are you here this time? I'm busy reading future books."
"A book on dragon anatomy and major mutations. What can cause a dragon to grow extra eyes?"
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4th of Auv, 225 years since megados eruption
"To the True Neutral, your opinion is required.
A greater dragon (referred to as Atta) was recently killed by the dragon slayer. Atta had no close family, no will, and no direct benefactor. As accordance with the rules, Atta's wealth's location was publically announced, claimable by any who reached it first. However, instead of a dragon claiming Atta's wealth, a sapient attempted to claim it. This started a disagreement as to the legitimacy of the sapient's claim. While the rules do not explicitly state that a sapient cannot do this, many dragons believe that the wealth of a dragon should not end up in the hands of a non-dragon unless given by that dragon. Others believe that the rules should not apply to non-dragons, and so the claim is invalid.
We have been unable to agree on a proper interpretation of the rules. Because of this, no dragons have interfered yet, waiting to see if the claim is valid or not. Thus, we require your biased and minimally informed opinions.
-Dragon Lord Council"
This is so dumb. Whether or not the claims are valid, there's no rules protecting the wealth or lives of sapients. Who cares if a sapient got there first, just kill them? They sent a crow for this shit! I swear they did it just as an excuse to check up on me.
I guess if I had to choose, then the claim would be valid, though again, it really shouldn't matter. The claim is only valid while the sapient can protect it or themself against dragons. Which unfortunately, just isn't possible right now. Maybe in a few more generations, they'll be able to hurt us.
Anyways, Iesmo made me some stress-relief stuff. It's been a day and they're half-broken already, but I'm feeling much better.
16th of Auv, 225 years since megados eruption
Good news, my head doesn't hurt. Bad news, I'm bleeding everywhere. As in, my whole left side has a bunch of random cuts that are bleeding. Normally, I'd be concerned, but I have greater problems that I need to deal with first.
Mainly the fact that I'm shedding my wings. This should only happen once every thousand years or so. I know I kind of don't keep track of my age, but I'm fairly certain I'm not that old yet. And even if this is somehow normal, is it supposed to feel this cold?
Unfortunately, I can't fly to mom and ask her this time around. I'll have to wait until my wings refurbish themselves. I forgot how long that's supposed to take. Hopefully not too long.
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Excerpt from "Angels; Facts and Fictions"
...However, angels have two ways to cheat death. The first is to forcefully eject an eye from their body into a strong source of light. The eye grows a mouth and attempts to consume the light source. If successful, the light enables the eye to fully regenerate a body.
The second way for an angel to cheat death is to inhabit the mind of someone that is equal or stronger than them. However, this is only possible with the consent of the host. The angel also loses their physical form, and any attack of the host's mind harms the angel first. The only known example of this is with Behethan...
...It was once believed that a deal with an angel had no risk, for an angel couldn't lie. However, while partially true, deals with an angel are often more likely to backfire due to their misleading costs. The only deals that do not have misleading costs are body modifications. These instead have a more straightforward cost, usually something valuable that cannot be taken back, like an emotion or sense.
Interestingly enough, there is an example of a loophole within the deals of an angel. The angel is the one to decide the costs, so if an angel asks for something that the non-angel does not have, then the deal will one-sidingly favor the non-angel. Of course, this is difficult due to the angels' habits of reading others' memories.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
"The details all line up perfectly, but it doesn't quite make sense. She used 'erase memory' at that time, so if the angel was hiding in her, it would've been damaged first. Maybe a deal? But then what would've been the cost? Hopefully it was one of the emotions she lacked..."
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28th of Auv, 225 years since megados eruption
I found out I have a natural resistance to poppies. Which sucks, since that's the only painkiller around here. Also, why is Tesmo growing poppies?
Anyways, besides the returning headache and pain of a few dozen cuts all along... everywhere, I'm now also dealing with what is probably the coldest autumn in forever. Which isn't helped by the fact that my wings aren't ready yet. Fun fact, wings regulate heat better than tongues. I think that myth originates from that stupid sphynx.
In other news, the bleeding has lessened to a more respectable rate. The floor is no longer getting stained by my own blood, thankfully. Unfortunately, I don't have the chemicals needed to remove the stains from the carpets.
Oh yeah, I learned something interesting. Iesmo's threads can regrow using dragon blood. It's really inefficient, but still very interesting.
11th of Ax, 225 years since megados eruption
Why the fuck is there a traveling sales-dragon at this time of year? Where the fuck did they even come from? Why are they trying to sell 'longevity potions' to me? I'm only like 350 years old. I don't even look old, I'm tiny compared to anyone above 3000.
Went ahead and shooed them away with the ballista. Also, apparently we have a ballista. According to Aesmo, it 'wasn't important or even notable'. I guess if you have a death anti-magic laser, a ballista is nothing to note.
Anyways, this encounter made me a bit suspicious of the recent death of a dragon lord. They said it was caused due to poison in a homemade immortality elixir. But the thing is, some of the ingredients of that elixir are fairly exotic. You can't get gorgon eyes, siren tongues, and chicken teeth without raising some notice. So then, how could a single dragon collect and hide all of these ingredients without alerting the other dragon lords?
I suspect there were accomplices. Specifically, some other dragon lord who helped gather the ingredients, and covered up their own involvement when the elixir failed. Of course, I based this conclusion on a single piece of information that the Esmos kept.
There were two separate dragon lords who bought gorgon eyes in the last 50 years. Neither were the dragon lord who died.
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Excerpt from "A Demon's Deal"
...The demon's specialty was transmutation of their own bodies. They could adapt to almost any environment, which was why they controlled the entire surface while angels were exiled to caves and hell. However, for some strange reason, they could not use this ability on others. So instead, they found a loophole.
When a deal between a demon and dragon is made, the demon imparts a portion of themself into the dragon's body. This fragment of a demon acted like a virus, infecting the dragon's cells and turning them into demon cells. The demon can then transmute the infected cells, leading to an apparent transmutation of the dragon's body. However, the effect was limited only to infected cells and was temporary.
Eventually, when the demons went extinct, the virus became dormant. While it remained in the bodies of some dragons, there was nothing that could activate it. While the cells are passed down, they get diluted. After 4 generations, most dragons have no infected cells at all...
...These cells interact strangely when modified by an angel's deal. They usually die very violently, causing visible wounds to form. However, in some rare cases, the infected cells cancel the angel's modifications, voiding the deal. This is why a dragon never makes a deal with both a demon and an angel.
"It's only been 2 generations for her. She should still have a significant amount of infected cells. If she really did make a deal, then there should've been a reaction. So it isn't that. Fuck, this damn book doesn't say anything about the cost of deals though. I thought maybe her lack of desire was related, but there's just not enough information..."
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Pov Rephantasia
Rephantasia was once called a coward for not joining the war. From her own perspective, she was smart. When even a dragon could kill her, what point was there to fight a war if she was just going to die. No, by hiding underground, she would live. And even if it takes a hundred thousand years, she would take revenge on the demons. Of course, first she had to grow strong.
Then she heard a wiggling. A worm was digging its way into her hiding cave. But this one was unusual. It was smart. It found an ore deposit, her favorite nickel, and stopped. Then another worm came, this one digging towards the clump of iron that she was about to feast on. It stopped.
Rephantasia held pride in her intelligence. Yet this confused her. Why would worms be intelligent? How could they detect ores? Why would they detect ores?
Then came paranoia. There was an entity that wanted to find ores. The only reason to look for ores was either because you wanted to eat it, or you were looking for something that eats ore. It was unlikely to be an angel. Therefore, it was a demon actively searching for angels.
She quickly relocated herself to a more secure location. The inside of a volcano would do. Worms wouldn't be able to reach here easily. And plus, lava was nice and warm. Ideal for any spawn she manages to make.
...
When she next woke up, there were visitors. Strange, small snake-like entities were staring down at her in fear. From further above she could smell something she didn't want to smell for another few thousand years. Dragon blood. She was found.
Lunging towards the closest being, she shredded them in one bite. Fragile, weak. They were probably only for scouting. Unfortunately, there was a lot of them, and only one Rephantasia. She'd have to use that.
flying higher, she encountered a gate. They had sealed off her exit. And right in front of the gate was the source of the smell. It wasn't a dragon? More like a giant spider. Maybe a mutant, or a bastard? In that case, she might be able to deal with it.
Whipping her tail around, she struck first, slamming the spider into the gate. To her surprise, neither were damaged. The spider recovered quickly, and prepared to jump. She prepared to dodge, but a faint tickling next to her distracted her. The spider jumped, and when she tried to dodge, a web net pulled her into the spider's path.
The collision was painful, but she wasn't going to let a chance go. Between the two of them, she blasted a magic-missile. A simple spell, but always effective. The blast tore the spider's legs apart and sent it flying away. Unfortunately, Rephantasia was not unharmed. The spider's legs had dug deep, and she was now bleeding profusely. It'd take a while to heal, time which she did not have.
The spider still had 3 legs. It aimed carefully, then pounced. She was prepared this time, and slapped the spider down. Then she dived to follow it. As expected, the spider attempted to make webbing to stop its fall. Rephantasia crashing into it interrupted the careful weaving. Then there was a splash.
Only Rephantasia floated up. Nothing of the spider remained. Looking into her mind palace, she confirmed the deaths of the scouts. However, she could barely rest. It was only a matter of time before a real dragon came, or worse, a demon. Would she win? She had to. She had to live.
...
In the end, she won with her ace. It was painful, hiding all those eyes inside another. But it worked, and the dragon in her mind palace was proof. Unfortunately, the dragon was clearly prepared. It even had a tool to remind itself of who they were. Even worse, she was getting sleepy. She hoped another dragon won't come.
...
A strange, tingling sensation woke her up. This was time magic? Was there another angel!? Now was her chance. She had to see... Where was she? She didn't recognize these caves. Was this still in the volcano? How long was she asleep?
Wait, footsteps? So it wasn't an angel? No, maybe the spell was an angel's but whatever is approaching isn't an angel. Her mind palace... that dragon's still alive? Wait no, it lost almost all of its memories. It even has an escape route, but is too mentally damaged to use it. It'll be fine to let them go if whatever is approaching proves to be a risk.
Nodding to herself, she released the deranged dragon. It fell out unconscious. At around the same time, the source of the footsteps came around the corner. It was another dragon, but its body was clearly transmuted. Too many legs. A demon pawn. Taking no risk, she trapped the dragon into her mind palace. To think that they still used dragons.
She felt something crack within herself. Her mind palace was getting damaged? Peering in, she witnessed pandemonium. Her mind palace was cracked all over, the faint residue of 'manipulate memory' leaking off of the dragon. How does it know that spell? It was reserved for those loyal to that angel.
Then the dragon flew through one of the cracks... and directly into the mind of Rephantasia. The idiot. Immediately, she bombarded the dragon's senses with her stolen memories. As many unpleasant memories as she could think of; the sensation of moist freezing from trying to eat a demon's tongue, the taste of dragon flesh, the discomforting squish of angel eyes. Yet, it had no effect. Or rather, this particular dragon was used to this.
'I'm sure a normal dragon'd go crazy experiencing all this. But to be honest, it all feels mundane...'
What? Why could she hear its thoughts? Nevermind, she should change what memories she was showing. What would work... How about war! That should get some sort of emotional response!
...??? Why aren't they feeling anything?
'Hm? Am I supposed to feel something? Sorry, I don't have empathy unfortunately.'
Can it hear her? Fuck, next memory! If empathy doesn't work, maybe jealousy? Or heat? Lightning? Please something have an effect!
And why the fuck can it smell her emotions!? What does 'over-ripe fruit' even mean?!
...
She wanted to say it was the easiest deal of her life. She gave some knowledge and even a bit of bodily modification, and she got to live in the dragon's mind palace for free! Since she didn't fuse into its mind, she couldn't be harmed by mental attacks either. She wanted to say that everything went according to plan.
The problem was this demon fragment was trying to kick her out. However, unlike Rephantasia, it was merely a fragment of a fragment, holding nothing but instinctual hate for angels. And in the domain of the mind palace, she was only a half-step removed from a god. Her eyes were everywhere, staring at the moon-like fragment. The moon tried to attack her, sending giant roots into her eyes. Yet when one eye got destroyed, another two split open. And each eye tore into the moon. Thousands of cuts built up until whole chunks fell off. Eventually, the moon was carved down to only its eye.
She thought victory was one strike away. Then she noticed she was missing some eyes. Not enough to be concerned, but enough to be confused. Looking to where they should've been, she paled. Another fragment. And further still, another one. Somehow, there were multiple fragments of demons within the dragon. How...
Vildra was a cannibal. By consuming other dragons, she also consumed infected cells. Over time, these cells formed into fragments within her. Rephantasia sighed. This wasn't supposed too be part of the deal. But she could not deny; there was a catharsis to killing these fragments. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.
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23rd of Ax, 225 years since megados eruption
I managed to get my hands on the dragon lord council meeting transcripts from 100 years ago. There's a notable one; the meeting talking about the dragon's potential extinction. They had a survey to see who thought the dragons should just go extinct, and who thought we should try to continue to live.
The dead dragon lord said we shouldn't try to live past our time. That we should die when we should die. So why did he make that immortality elixir?
The two dragon lords who bought some of the ingredients were firmly in the 'try and keep dragons alive as long as possible' category. It'd make sense if they made the elixir to try and live longer. But what if that wasn't the goal of the elixir. Or rather, why would they give an immortality elixir to someone whose ideology was opposite theirs?
...Fuck, did I just uncover an assassination plot?
26th of Ax, 225 years since megados eruption
A council meeting. They specified that my participation was required. Fuck.