With nanites on the planet now, Adam had eyes and ears everywhere which meant he could teleport or open a portal to that location. Adam teleported to a small empty cavern. He made this stop because he didn’t want magma flowing through the portal if he summoned a portal while floating in magma. He looked around quickly while he allowed his skin to cool off, which he accelerated with a little push with his will and magic.
Once he’d cooled down a bit, he chose a place near where Adjra was perched and opened a portal. He watched through his nanites as Adjra immediately lifted her head and focused on the point where the other end of his portal was opening about 300 feet away from her on a ledge that was also below her. Adam steadied himself. Not because he was worried about being hurt. He honestly didn’t think there was anything on this planet that could hurt him. No, he steadied himself because it wasn’t every day someone was born a dragon and met their mom.
Adam stepped through the portal and stood there waiting as his portal closed behind him. He watched her through his nanites as her eyes looked at him and she sniffed the air. After a few moments, Adjra froze, then launched herself into the air and dove toward Adam. He had to admit she was magnificent. Slightly larger than his dragon form she was at least 600 feet long with a wingspan that stretched as far. Luckily the cave they were in was humongous. Her lair was on a natural outcropping with glowing moss and other plants scattered all over the ceiling that gave off just enough light that it felt like twilight throughout the cave. At one end of the cave, almost three miles away was a thin river of lava that supplied the heat to this cavern while there was a freshwater lake at the opposite end that, if known about on the surface, could be considered an ocean in its own right as only a small portion emerged into this cave.
Adam didn’t move or flinch as Adjra landed almost on top of him and leaned her head in until she was only inches from his skin and sniffed. Adam couldn’t see her eyes from his position below her, but he could see them through his nanites as her eyes went wide as she took in his scent. A few other dragons had seen her launch and were even now making their way toward her and Adam. Adjra lifted her head and let out a roar that let every dragon in the cave know in no uncertain terms not to interfere.
After Adjra roared she looked down with a softness in her eyes then white smoke enveloped her as she shifted into one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen, though she wasn’t a woman. His nanites noted that she had wings compressed and folded against her back. She was 6”5” tall with platinum hair to Adam’s 5’10” human form. Adam noted that her platinum hair was only accentuated by the golden iris of her eyes. She looked down at Adam and smiled as she said, “My son, why do you appear before me in this human form?”
Adam smiled back, “I did not know I had a humanoid form that was not human or elf. Also, I have not been born for very long. The day of the eruption above, that is how long I have been a part of this world,” Adam said.
“What do you mean that is how long you’ve been in this world? Were you born 15 days ago?” Adjra asked.
“I was born from your egg, but I have my complete memories from my previous life,“ Adam said
“If this is true, what is your name?”
“My true name remains as it was in my previous life. The name I have chosen in this incarnation is Adamantadine,” Adam said.
“Very well Adamantadine, show me your true form, let me behold the body of my son which you claimed from that other place.”
Adam nodded and then allowed the white pearlescent smoke of chaos to surround him as he took on his Adamantium Dragon Form. As he did so, Adjra swapped back to her Dragon Form as well. She looked him over, sniffed him near his neck, and then rubbed her neck against his like a cat would. When she drew back there was a tear in her golden eyes as she transformed back to humanoid form.
Adam did the same and asked, “If I might ask, what form have you taken, it is not human, and I have not run into it before. Well, I have run into something similar, but they were Angels,” Adam said.
“Our humanoid form, which is also one of our true forms, is often called celestial or celestine. We are not divine or beholden to the divine, but we do resemble angels and other similar creatures, from a distance at least,” Adjra said.
“What do you mean? You look like a humanoid angel right now?” Adam asked.
“This is my third form. This is a learned form and part of a simple magic that physically changes my appearance so spells and abilities that can see through illusions don’t see through this form to my true humanoid form. This is my true second form,” Adjra said as she morphed into a Draconic humanoid. She still had her goldenly irised eyes but her skin had been replaced by adamantium silver scales that covered her entire body. Some patches were darker, while areas like her face and chest were lighter. She flared her wings and Adam noticed that everywhere the bones under her wings held the wings were dark silver while the areas that were between the bones of her wings were light silver. There were also patterns in the dark and light-silvered scales that made Adjra unique.
“Are you saying that I have a form like that?” Adam asked.
“It looks like your body has already entered adulthood, which shouldn’t happen for centuries by the way. Normally once a hatchling hits juvenile status they learn to transform, so yes, you should be able to transform. If I might ask, how are you changing into the form of a human? Also, why do you reek of chaos magic?” Adjra asked.
“As I said, I came into this life with memories of my previous one. I also kept my intrinsic nature which is of chaos. That is what you’re smelling,” Adam said.
“And your nature allowed you to grow so quickly and thwart my ability to gauge your strength?”
“Yes,” Adam said succinctly.
“Very well. As the mother of your new body, I will share with you that which is your right. As you are not a newling or hatchling you will have to prove yourself worthy of any further secrets of our kind.
“Thank you. Also, I should let you know that I didn’t seek you out just to find you. I must meet with Aeris tomorrow to discuss how she is going to announce to the world what she is responsible for and that she is not a God. I was wondering if you’d like to come along.
“You met with Aeris, and you lived?” Adjra asked.
“I did. I’ll admit, I’d never run into a purple dragon before, and her breath weapon is pretty devastating, but she backed down rather quickly once she realized my strength and that I just wanted to talk,” Adam said.
“Purple dragons are anathema to all other dragons, even their kind. If you speak the truth I must witness this encounter for myself. Are you familiar with telepathy?”
“I am, though be warned, my mind is incredibly powerful. I can work to dampen the effect of the contact, but the power of my mentality might still bleed through,”
“I am more than willing to be affected by a powerful mind if that mind is capable of finishing off Aeris,”
“Very well, proceed with your mental probe,” Adam said.
Adjra nodded and then Adam felt her mind connect to his. Like so many before her, she couldn’t believe everything that Adam had said and delved deep into his memories. Adam drew Adjra into his Mindspace through her Mental Probe and increased the time dilation by orders of magnitude. If she wanted to know who her son was, he would let her know. Also, if anyone could make a sound decision on how to proceed here on Gemma, it would be her. After all, he did plan on leaving this place soon enough if the changes to his Animae Core worked.
Adam relaxed and allowed his mind to fall into a meditative rest state while Adjra went through his memories. Part of himself watched as she reviewed his memories, but he compartmentalized that portion of his mind and allowed the rest of himself to rest for a little while. He set an internal alarm for eight houses subjective, which would only be a moment or two outside of his Mindspace. That amount of time should give Adjra enough time to visit his time since arriving here and a little bit of his life in the previous area.
When his Alarm went off, Adam slowed the information exchange to Adjra until he’d stopped it and moved both of their points of view to a recreation of his balcony that overlooked Alamogordo in New Mexico. It was his Mindspace after all, he could choose whatever setting he wanted. He settled into the recliner and created a chair that would allow Adjra to sit if she kept her winged form as he waited for her mind to catch up on the information she’d been downloading.
Adam sipped his Long Island Iced Tea as he watched the sky turn pink in the distance as the sun continued to travel around the planet and bring on the night. He did miss the simpler times when he could just relax. Even his recreation inside the Dyson Sphere in Chaos couldn’t have sunsets like this. The world curved up and away which made a sunset like this one from his memories, impossible. He might not ever get back to Alamogordo but someday he would find a place like this again.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Adjra finally stirred, looked at the drink beside her, and picked it up. She sniffed it once, nodded to herself, and then drank deeply before she set the glass back down on the table. She retracted her wings and sat down as she said, “I think I’m going to switch to common,” Adjra said in common. “Some of the questions I have cannot be voiced in draconic.”
“Fair enough,” Adam answered in common. “What questions do you have?”
“First, why show me this? If everything goes as your memories indicate you wish them to, you are going to try to bring back your family and friends. Why show me everything you’ve been through?” Adjra asked.
“I didn’t show you everything. We’ve only been in my mind for about eight subjective hours while almost no time has passed for us outside of my mind. There is a lot more information I could show you but all I needed to show you was that I had met with Aeris and that I was telling the truth about remembering my previous life.”
“And you have. You are my son, yet you are reincarnated from another existence. One you think you can get back to. What if the gap between that previous existence is not stopped by a physical or magical barrier? What if it is stopped by time?
Adam looked thoughtful for a moment before he answered, “Are you asking me what I’ll do if a lot of time has passed between the time the Cardinal of Justice tried to rip my soul out and destroy me permanently? Logically that can’t be true. That cardinal is the closest thing to a true God I have ever run into. If time were the barrier between my birth here and my death at his hand, the Gods would probably still be around and they would have appeared to try again before I was able to shore up my defenses. I’m not saying I’m indestructible but no Cardinal will ever be able to do anything with my Animae again. I have too many animae dedicated to the structure within my Soul Core for that to happen again.”
“The Universe doesn’t work as we would wish it to, your run-in with Aeris should have reminded you of that fact, there are always bigger threats,” Adjra admonished.
Adam just nodded, though he didn’t completely agree. The universe seemed to work as he wished. If a new threat manifested, he’d have to rise against it as well. Instead of arguing he changed the topic, “So, did you want to accompany me to visit with Aeris?”
“You don’t even need to meet with her to get the information out to the world, do you? If you wanted, everyone on Gemma would know dragons exist wouldn’t they because of your na-nights?”
“Saw that in my memories did you?” Adam asked. Before she could respond Adam continued, “Yes I could, but doing so would generate a lot of panic. Also, now that I found the dragons that went into hiding, there are close to a thousand of you scattered around the world by the way,” Adam said and let that sink in before he continued, “I thought that instead of all of you resurfacing and a new dragon war commencing, the two of you could sit down like adults and discuss where the two camps of dragons go from here.”
“She deserves to die for what happened 100 years ago! We may have a thousand dragons underground now but we had almost five times that number before the collapse,” Adjra said.
“I mined the history the UDC kept, almost 6,000 metallic dragons were destroyed, and around 1,000 colored dragons as well. From researching the history, I think Aeris' portrayal as a Goddess was too effective and the UDC became a little too overzealous in their pursuit of killing dragons. She might have only been targeting you, and the other good dragons, but there was some backlash from her actions.”
“So how do we keep the UDC from finishing what they started if we re-emerge?” Adjra asked.
“To begin with, that’s easy enough, I set limiters on their technology. I can’t do anything about their personal weapons or magic but if it’s technological and has a computer in it, I can keep it from being used against you. Additionally, I think when I release the story of what happened the colored dragons are going to have a much harder time of it than any of the metallic dragons. There are no evil metallic dragons here on Gemma are there?” Adam asked.
“No, metallic dragons for the most part are either good or neutral, though we do defend our young and ourselves if provoked.”
“There you go then, when I release the story around the world and everyone sees how the metallic dragons have been hiding for over 100 years deep within the planet while Aeris and her dragons have been subverting a religion to hide the evil dragons and hunt humanoids for sport, well, they’ll have to answer for that, as will any humanoids that helped them, while you all should get a free pass.”
“You know it’s not going to go that easy?” Adjra asked.
“I know, but for any of this to happen, Aeris needs to understand what will happen if she doesn’t make an announcement and try to right the wrongs she’s committed.
“You know purple dragons are not known for thinking ahead,” Adjra said.
“Why is that?”
“Because they want to see everything destroyed. I watched your encounter in your memories. Do not think for a second that Aeris isn’t trying to figure a way out to destroy you. You gave her two weeks. I would bet that all she’s been working on this whole time is figuring out a way to destroy you,” Adjra said.
Adam double-checked the nanites that had been near Aeris for the last two weeks. There was nothing out of the ordinary, though she stepped through a portal quite often. At least once a day she disappeared for several hours. When she returned whatever nanites had accompanied her no longer existed so it was obvious that wherever she was going was inherently bad for physical matter. Also, wherever she was going wasn’t on Gemma. He had nanites throughout the inorganic parts of the planet at this point, he’d see her if she appeared anywhere on Gemma.
Adam turned to Adjra, “I just checked and see what you mean. She’s been up to something. I’ll just have to play it by ear. In the meantime, why don’t you get the dragons together and get ready to move back out into the world? I’ll make sure to give you a place where you all can emerge and not worry about being hounded by the local media or worse yet, scientists that want to know more about you.”
Adjra laughed, “If all we had to worry about were scientists, we wouldn’t have to worry at all. Also, if we emerge talking with the people of Gemma will be something we would like to do. We have been hidden away for over 100 years. Talking with other entities instead of telling the same stories over and over would be a welcome change.”
“Fair enough,” Adam said. “We should probably drop out of my Mindspace. I have things to prepare for tomorrow and I believe others around us would like introductions. Would you like me to be in my dragon form for that?”
“Yes, dragon form. Also, I know you have the memories of your wife, the umbral dragon. Just follow her cues for social interactions once introductions and dominance have been established. We don’t normally establish dominance through combat, but we all tend to act like oversized house cats once we’re comfortable with those around us.”
“Sounds good,” Adam said as he shifted the Mindscape they were in by reducing the temporal dilation and returning the passage of time to the normal speed while also guiding Adjra out of his mind. Once back in their bodies, they each looked around. While only a few moments had passed, Adjra and Adam both took a deep breath and smiled as they shifted into their dragon forms.
Over the next 12 hours, Adam flew here and there throughout the giant cavern to meet all the close by elders. His mother was by far the largest. The only bit of fun he was able to have was when his mother took him to meet one of his older brothers.
As they flew up Adjra let him know that his brother's name was Adjrock. For his age and size, he was the strongest dragon in the underworld. Adam detected a mental communication between Adjrock and Adjra but didn’t break in as that would have been disrespectful. When the communication ended Adjrock grinned and picked up speed.
Adjra sent a message into Adam’s mind, “A test of dominance between brothers and sisters consisted of one sibling charging the other while the other taps into their affinity with space and locks themselves in place. Each brother takes a turn. Whoever moves the other further is the winner of the challenge.”
Adam nodded in understanding as he thought about how that was a very interesting, nonviolent way to establish who was stronger. Adam came to a stop, locked himself down with his full willpower and intellect, and waited. Adjrock gained speed and just before he collided with Adam folded his left wing back and tried to tackle Adam like a linebacker sacking a quarterback. Adjrock stopped dead in his tracks. Luckily it hadn’t been a full-out attack or Adjrock might have broken a few bones.
Adjrock caught his breath and then wheezed out, “Damn brother, I didn’t even move you an inch, how is that possible?”
Instead of answering Adam asked, “It’s now my turn, yes?”
“It is, just fly out and back and then see if you can budge me once I’ve locked my position.”
“No need, are you ready?” Adam asked as unlocked himself from his position and adjusted to the position his brother locked himself into. Adjrock smiled, “Going for the draw for your big brother, how respectable,” Adjrock said in a condescending tone.
Instead of answering, Adam smiled as he slowly nudged his nose up to Adjrock's chest and effortlessly moved him one foot back from his locked-down position with a slow steady push.
“What?” Adjrock said with utter surprise. “How?”
“I’ll let Mom explain it to you after I leave,” Adam said.
“You truly are as strong as I saw in your memories?” Adjra asked as she flew over and locked herself in place spatially next to both of them.
“Of course, how else do you think I bested Aeris?” Adam said.
“That bitch needs to die!” Adjrock said with heat in his voice.
“True,” Adjra agreed. “As a compromise, should things not work out with Aeris when you talk to her, the Red Dragon Fenris is a lot more level-headed and also one of the eldest that I remember. Should Aeris fall, Fenris would be in a perfect position to assume control of the colored dragons. Also, except for Aeris, there should be no other purple dragons so that’s a plus.”
“You think I’m walking into a trap?” Adam asked.
“Walking, flying, or swimming, yes it’s a trap if it involves Aeris, “Adjrock said while Adjra nodded in agreement.
“Very well, I’ll be careful. I only have about 10 hours left before I go to meet her. If it’s a trap, I’ll be going alone. That said, is there a place I can rest for eight hours?”
“Sure,” Adjra said as she launched back into the air and called back, “Follow me.”
Adam followed Adjra to an outcropping near the lava stream that was high up on the cavern wall and landed. Adam came in for a landing and looked down. They were at least a thousand feet above the cavern floor.
“You can use this ledge. This is my home away from home. No one will disturb you while you’re resting. I’m going to go talk with the other elders about our re-emergence into the new technological world above.
Adam shifted to his human form as he had his nanites create a king-sized bed over in the corner of the ledge. “Sounds good Adjra. I’m going to take a nap and then head to where I met with Aeris before. I think it was a parallel dimension where she set up a haven for herself. If things go south I’ll come get you so you can sit down with Fenris”
Adjra nodded and then flew off deeper into the cavern. Like him, she was having issues with their mother-and-son relationship. Probably because he didn’t feel like she was his mom, even if he knew she was. Adam put that out of his mind, walked over to the bed, and laid down. The last thought he had before he drifted off to sleep was that Adjra was probably right and trying to work with Aeris was a mistake. Still, he had to give her a chance, or did he?