Azura had been busy notstop since his spar with Lux. Not surprising really, given the knight had paid him for the destroyed equipment, and he had a lot of stuff to replace/upgrade. He hadn’t lied about the value, heck he had if anything undersold the item's value, but that didn’t mean he had paid that much for them. Actually having the items value in money meant he could make way more equipment of a way higher quality. Not to mention the extra money Lux was paying to have new equipment made. Self repairing armor was easy enough, but the shield might be a bit tricky, not that something being tricky had stopped him before.
All in all he might as well have been in heaven. He hadn’t been able to just create whatever he wanted in a long time, and the last time he had was when his skill was significantly less than it was now. The only downside was losing a lot of his arsenal, when an important battle would probably be coming soon. Still he had plenty of stuff left, and he doubted they’d be attacking right away. They would probably be feeling out the defenses he had added fo a few more weeks before charging in.
It was almost too bad in a way. If they had just charged in recklessly they no doubt would have been wiped out. His traps were vicious, especially to the unaware. That didn’t mean that knowing about them would be enough to keep someone safe, but it would certainly help. There was after all no such thing as a perfect defense. Especially when he didn’t know anything about the enemy. As such he had changed up the defenses for each temple. Each one requiring a different approach to properly deal with. The one he had the most hope for was simply a giant anti-magic field. Neither side would be able to use external magic, and it would come down to numbers and fighting ability. He supposed he could have used the other type of anti-magic, so he could still use his magic, but a field that large would be too big a drain on his mana if it was of that type. The kind he used could sustain itself on natural mana just fine.
“It’s 3 in the morning, how long have you been in the forge for?” Oops, he had gotten lost in thought while carefully using mana to shape a dagger. He was once again using the dagger Alice had given him as a template, he had a feeling that was going to be one of his best weapons when fighting with Canis. After all, the dagger had originally had a thirst for blood that rivaled even the most vicious of ancient vampires.
“Sorry Serena, I have a lot of work to do to prepare for the battle to come. More importantly what are you doing awake? Unlike me you don’t have a dr…” Wait, why didn’t she have a dragon's constitution? They shared the same mom, so Serena should have the same seal that he did. Would it be a good idea to unleash that power? Taking her to one of the pools was out of the question, but he should be able to induce a similar situation.
“Azura? Are you alright?” He took a deep breath to calm his mind. It wouldn’t do to worry his sister. He mulled over what to say, and decided that he’d leave it up to her after explaining the situation.
“Yes I’m fine, just came to the startling realization that you’re my sister.” He injected as much humor into it as he could, because it really was quite stupid that it only occurred to him now. By Serena’s confused look he’d guess she didn’t find it all that funny. “I told you how I have a magic core, and body now right? Well it seems I didn’t think to mention why that’s the case, and it just occurred to me that you should have that same potential.”
“Wait, you mean all that nonsense is from something genetic? I just figured you found some way to enchant the very nature of yourself.” Hmm interesting idea, perhaps that would be something worth experimenting with, but not for right now at least.
“Nope, it comes from our mother. It turns out she was an actual dragon, or technically half a dragon since half of her fae heritage was still pure.” He shook his head. “No sorry the specifics don’t matter right now, what does matter is that if we can safely unseal your dragon side, and get your body to sync with it like mine it will be a major boon to your abilities, and make it far more difficult for you to be harmed. I was so focused on finding someone to protect you, I didn’t even think about helping you protect yourself.”
“Our mother was a dragon!” The look of shock on Serena’s face reminded him that she in fact didn’t know about most of the startling revelations he had come to. “But she was so gentle?! Also I get that she could shapechange, but how are we… well I guess just me now. How am I a normal human?” He had to fight back a smile. It had been a long time since he had seen his little sister get excited like that. Like him she had to grow up fast to survive their fathers teachings, but sometimes her childish innocence still shined through.
“Well I assume you have a seal similar to the one I used to have. It turns out we were sealed because otherwise we would have died as the corruption from this world overtook our draconic side. Well it’s a bit more complicated than that, but that’s the simple version.” That became the biggest issue with helping her reach a similar state to him. He had been purified by that special flame in Avalon. He obviously had no way to take his sister there, so he’d have to find another way to accomplish that task.
“A seal? Surely something like that would have been noticed in at least one of the medical tests I've done, wouldn’t it?” He only noticed his own through his original attempts to enchant himself, so he didn’t think it was something you would see with a standard examination.
“It’s not necessarily something you’d just see, and certainly not if you didn’t know what to look for. I wouldn’t have even noticed my own if not for my copies.” His unique magic really was amazingly useful. It was honestly basically cheating, but he was more than ok with that.
“So if you undid your own seal can’t you just undo mine?” He hummed in thought. Of course he could undo hers, but undoing his own hadn’t exactly gone well. He had to find some way to replicate the effects of the flames, and worse he had to do it in the next few days. He was going to be returning to the academy soon after all.
“It’s a bit more complicated than that. If I simply break the seal your dragon instincts will come down all at once, and your normal psyche will collapse. I suppose it’s possible that if you stay unsealed it will eventually balance out, and you're probably strong enough to survive the corruption now, but it would probably be better to find a way to purify you and link the fae side to this world like I did. Which unfortunately means I’ll have to find a way to prepare a method to do just that.” It would be an interesting challenge for sure, and it had come at a bad time since he was so busy with making equipment, but it was important that his sister be able to defend herself. If she became a being like him then even their father wouldn’t be able to threaten her, because she could just dissolve her body and reform in the spirit world.
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“So what would going through this turn me into?” He sighed at the slight mix of curiosity and worry. It wasn’t a simple question to answer, honestly he wasn’t even entirely sure what he was, but he could at least explain what he knew about the changes, though assuming that his sister would change in the exact same way was wishful thinking at best..
***
It turned out even a dragon's constitution had its limits. Azura was exhausted, simply staying awake was taking constant focus, and reforming into a more rested body wasn’t helping anymore. Apparently if he went long enough without resting he’d start to strain his core, and from there everything was awful. Unfortunately rest was not an option at the moment.. Genesis had made their first attempt on 1 of the temples. Thankfully it was just a small scouting party that had quickly retreated, but it worked well as a reminder to the time crunch he was in. Tomorrow he’d have to go back to the academy and prepare his anti-Genesis squad, and he had a lot to get done before that.
It certainly didn’t help that a lot of people were nagging him about different things. Serena was bothering him about helping to unseal her, Katy was bothering him about replacing all the resources he had used against Lux, Alice was bothering him about the equipment he’d agreed to make for lux, and Xander was bothering him about his plans to deal with Genesis. Overall he was pulled in too many different directions, and even with his copies he was starting to crack. Normally he would just rest at this point, but he had too much to get done and too little time.
He just had to finish everything today, once he was at the academy tomorrow he could sleep the entire day and let his copies suffer through the few things he’d have to take care of. He had been awake for almost a whole week after all, and had been working constantly in that time. He shook his head and stifled his yawn as he carefully etched in the last of the enchantments for Lux’s new shield. That was 1 task down, and far too many to go. What was next on his agenda? His copies were currently working on the spell to help purify his sister, and forging new equipment. He’d probably have to trade out with one of the copies, because trying to scout out Genesis with his real body was way too much of a risk.
“How do I always get myself involved in these messes?’ He groaned to himself as he slowly stood up, stretching his legs and arms while he had the brief respite from his work. He grabbed the shield to deliver it to Lux, but noticed the presence at the door to the castle’s forge. He had decided to use the castle’s equipment to make Lux’s stuff, and his own equipment in the armory for his own stuff, though the equipment and layout was fairly similar.
“Because you’re unwilling to leave a problem to somebody else.” He groaned. He didn’t need Katy’s sass right now, especially when she was right. It wasn’t his fault right now though, the only task someone else would be able to do is scout out Genesis, and that was way too dangerous for a non copy to do.
“When I have problems that I can safely leave to other people I’ll work on that.” Relying on others really was a constant battle, and he always seemed to find himself falling into old habits. He liked to think it was because he had copies, and genuinely could do several things at once, but it was more likely it was simply a character flaw he struggled to overcome.
“I suppose that’s a fair excuse. Still, you need to rest. Even strangers are starting to notice how tired you are, there’s no way your work isn’t starting to slip.” He bristled at the comment. There was no way he’d let something like being a little tired affect his work, both the forging and the enchantments were immaculate as always.
“You can have anyone check the quality, I would never allow it to drop, especially not in times like these.” Now granted his work was taking slightly longer than normal with him constantly having to shake himself awake, but that still didn’t add as much time as actually sleeping would, and he was confident that if he slept now he’d be out for at least 12 hours, and even that was thanks to the increased energy recovery his nature as a halfbreed gave him.
“I don’t doubt it, but would a non-exhausted you approve of everything?” It didn’t matter if he would or not, this was the only way to get everything finished in time. Still while the quality of everything was up to his standards it might be true that if he wasn’t so tired he might have been a bit more creative with the materials.
“I don’t have time for perfection right now, so I have to settle for excellence. I’ll rest tomorrow I promise, but for right now there is just too much that needs to be done.” He wasn’t unused to losing sleep, so he knew better than anyone how it affected him, but he also knew when it was necessary.
“Fine but you better sleep tomorrow, and that includes not sending copies to class, there’s no point with how exhausted they are going to be. We’ll fill you in for once.” He grumbled, but easily relented. He honestly didn’t like to make his copies do things he didn’t like, and he absolutely wouldn’t want to go to classes as tired as he was now, much less how he would be tomorrow. It was easy to see that would be his best option.
“Fine, but you guys better pay attention in your classes, I don’t want to miss anything.” He had faith in his friends, but it wasn’t like he didn’t know that studying was not their strength. At least if nothing else Roran’s notes would be extremely detailed. Honestly the only ones who he was worried about were Katy and Lily, the others at least tried to focus on the lesson. Those 2 required his help almost every time.
Katy flushed in embarrassment. “I pay attention in class! It’s just hard to retain boring information sometimes.” He gave her a deadpan stare. She shrunk under the gaze, Hunching over with her face in her hands.
“I’ll try my best.” He held the stare a little longer before he sighed and patted her on her shoulder. She uncurled, and slowly calmed herself from her humiliation. He doubted her notes would be much better with the active effort, but as long as she tried her best he’d make do.
“That’s all anyone can ask for.” Well that wasn’t strictly true, his father was very good about giving tasks just barely above the best he could do, and having him either improve to fulfill the task or fail and be punished for failure. Still, while it was mired in the billion other things his father always tried to teach him, he would admit he was actually fond of those lessons. ‘It is a silver’s duty to grow everyday. A day without improvement is a waste.’ It was one of the few lessons his father taught that he was genuinely grateful to have learned.
Katy sighed and it turned into a yawn. “Thanks. Anyway I’ve bothered you enough, unlike you I get to go to sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.” He smiled and waved her off. He had to get to the forge anyway. Thankfully his room wasn’t far from the forge, and he had only been in his room because the enchantment on Lux’s shield was difficult and he didn’t want any distractions. He was quite lucky Katy only decided to make herself known after he was finished.
He idly wondered how he always ended up in these kinds of messes. It was almost funny in a way that he always seemed to be in the middle of some big event. This one was especially frustrating, because there were tons of people far stronger than him that would be much better suited for this task. Well the task of dealing with Genesis anyway, he was fairly confident that even the best arcanists couldn’t beat his battlefield enchantments. The weapons he made were all top notch. Of course on the flip side when it came to non battle enchantments like making airships they were far and above his superior.
He enjoyed the brief reprieve before he found himself once again in front of the forge. He yawned. “Time to get back to work I guess.”