I blinked.

Nida blinked.

We just stared at each other, processing my words.

What the hell was happening to me?

“Well. Okay,” Nida said slowly, nodding as she flashed a smile, her canines fully visible. “Glad to know you do care, My Queen.”

I frowned slightly, not answering the therianthrope’s probing question. Did I care? We walked up the bell tower in silence. The stairway was narrow, forcing Nida to walk behind me, though she stayed no more than a foot away the entire time. Giant cracks lined the stone walls, and some of the steps were missing, blown out during the monster horde’s attack.

“What are you going to tell them all?” Nida asked after we’d been slowly climbing the thirty-story tower.

“I’ll tell them what they want to hear,” I replied. My voice was easy and light, betraying none of the unsettled thoughts floating around in my head. With focused effort, I mentally pushed those thoughts and concerns about my unusual emotions for others to the back of my mind. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter. My goal hadn’t changed. If my Paragons became an obstacle, I’d deal with it then. For now, our connection was beneficial, especially since I still lacked a good deal of knowledge about this world and its customs. “All people want to be part of something larger than their own lives. Usually, that results in some form of faith.”

As we continued, I decided to tell Nida a little story, curious about her reaction. “A decade or so ago, I encountered a native tribe south of my homeland called the U’rgesh. Vicious people, really. All of them were berserkers like Ethan. At least, in a way. While most berserkers fuel their core with rage-attuned heart energy, these berserkers relied on their fanaticism toward their god, Ur’Goul.” I glanced back at Nida as the stairs spiraled. Her mouth was open, confusion etching lines across her otherwise porcelain features. I kept talking. “To this day, I’m still not sure how exactly it worked, and I’ll likely never find out since I killed the one they worshipped as Ur’Goul, and their power faded with him. Still, even after witnessing his death, his people continued praying to him, begging Ur’Goul to resurrect and take vengeance on the ‘heathen bitch.’ They absolutely despised me. For…” I pretended to think, “about a year. Then, some of them began to worship me as Ur’Goul, reasoning that if I was strong enough to defeat the person they thought was a god, I must be a god too. Or perhaps, I was even the true Ur’Goul.” I shrugged. “People will latch onto anything to make sense of their world, even though the world isn’t supposed to make sense, as far as I can tell.”

A long stretch of silence followed as Nida undoubtedly tried to process the story—to understand its point and what other information I was providing her.

“You…” she started, then stopped, before starting again. “My Queen, who are you?”

“It’s a long story,” I said, not looking back. “Let’s finish this, and then I might tell you a little.”

“Will you tell Ethan and Nasq?”

I thought about it for a second before shaking my head. “No, not yet. At some point, it will likely become necessary for many to know. But for now, I believe letting you know will suffice. The next steps of my plan require knowledge of Lysorian culture and religious understandings, both things I know very little about. You will need to help cover those blind spots for me.”

Another stretch of silence washed over us, though it was more comfortable than the last. “Do you remember what I told you when I accepted the choice to become a Paragon?”

I nodded. “You asked me to help your people.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nida’s head jerk up as she shot a stare filled with disbelieving wide eyes toward me. “I… I thought you must have forgotten.”

“It was only a few days ago, Nida,” I said briskly, somewhat annoyed at the slight to my memory.

“I just meant…” she trailed off, and I didn’t bother pushing. I didn’t really care to know what she meant. Although I knew some details of Nida’s species thanks to the Desire System, therianthropes were still a mystery to me. But if I could enlist an entire force of warriors as feral as Nida and train them, that could become something even those in Ordite feared. Why in the world would I ever forget such an opportunity?

In silence, we finally reached the top of the bell tower. Likely around fifteen or so stories tall, though the top few floors were missing. Instead of spiraling up into the top floor, we were greeted by the infinitely spanning blue of the mid-afternoon sky. Not a single cloud provided shade for the people of Sealrite from the scorching sun. Despite having been in Graedon for nearly a year, I’d yet to experience anything but heat and more heat in this world. I was absently wondering whether Graedon or Pularea had separate seasons with snow when Nida spoke abruptly, her voice both hesitant and pleading.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“My Queen, will you at least tell me your name? If you are not Lilliana of House Silverwater, then…?”

“You will soon learn much more than that,” I said, crossing my arms as I turned to face her. She was staring at the floor again, her hands clasped in front of her in an almost demure manner that seemed particularly odd on the vicious tiger woman. I sighed and gave in, leaning against the least broken part of the upper wall. “My name is Lilith.” She opened her mouth to speak, but I quickly cut her off. “But I am also Lilliana. Sort of.”

Nida nodded slowly. Very slowly. She bit the inside of her bottom lip and glanced at me, then away, then back at me again. She started to say something but stopped as I waved dismissively, like I was swatting a fly. “No more questions for now. I wish to cultivate while we wait for the others to gather.”

It wasn’t the time or place to get into the details of my existence and the secrets that lay deep within it. Nida seemed to understand and, though she closed her mouth, her lips pressed into a tight line of clear annoyance. Or impatience.

I sat cross-legged against the same wall I’d leaned against, just slightly in the shadows to avoid the scorching sun above. I had perhaps an hour before everyone I called had gathered, and I would make the most of it. Nida just plopped down where she was with a soft grunt that came off more like a pout, not bothering to sit out of the sun’s blazing shine.

For the first time in a good while, I consciously relaxed and closed my eyes. My shoulders sagged with relief, and my heart calmed, glad for the break from strenuous exertion. Although there wasn’t a mirror available at the moment, I could still feel the sticky touch of blood and gore clinging to my face, hair, clothes, and general existence. Parts of my clothes had been scorched during the wyvern combat, and what was left hung in literal rags. Fortunately, enough remained that I wasn’t exactly indecent, but my Aedronirian advisors would certainly have died of heart attacks.

My heart core was stable, as always. It thrummed with that familiar beat of power I’d always loved. Taking a second to breathe in rhythm with it never ceased to calm my mind. It was, truly, one of the only times I found peace. In. Out. In. Out.

After a while of simply breathing with my core, I turned inward to examine my progress toward breaking through to a gold core. I wasn’t particularly close, though all the combat I’d engaged in recently had caused the beginnings of a heart ring to form around the core. I would need at least a few more months before a full ring could be formed at this rate, short of finding some heart elixir. Considering what I’d seen of Pularea’s prowess in heart energy research, I didn’t have much hope. Still, it was good progress.

I’d left the mage’s core and the progenitor’s core at the camp with my other Paragons. While they could be useful as I moved forward, neither would be much help in developing my heart core into gold. The mage’s core might potentially aid in opening a magic core within myself, but I wasn’t sure if that was even possible. Something else I’d need to discuss with the Marquess. On the other hand, the progenitor’s core would still destroy my heart core if I drew on it. My current pace was steady, but if I ever hit a bottleneck, I might risk drawing a small amount of energy from it. Theoretically, if properly controlled, it wouldn’t kill me. Theoretically.

Time passed like a ceaseless river as I focused on circulating my energy throughout my meridians and core, continuing to purify them and strengthen my cultivation foundation. By the time the hour had passed, and I heard footsteps racing up the bell tower, I’d managed to encircle my silver core with a fragmented heart ring. The energy appeared in my mind’s eye as little more than disconnected pebbles forming a scattered ring around a brilliant silver sun, just waiting for me to add more until I could squeeze them all into a solid loop.

Many rush their ring creations before enough energy pebbles are gathered, resulting in a very thin ring that weakens the next level’s core. Impatience is, after all, the most common cause of death for Awakeners.

“My Queen,” came the familiar voice of the draconic resurrected. “I am pleased to see that you are well.”

I kept one eye closed but opened the other to look at Dralos. “Is it time?”

“Aye. The Paragons and all those you have freed are here as well,” he said.

I frowned at that. “All of them?”

Dralos nodded. “Yes, Queen.”

“The cores and branding prism?” Dralos tossed me a silver ring imbued with a single ruby gem no larger than a small fly. I snatched it from the air and raised an eyebrow at the draconian. “What is this?”

“It’s a storage ring,” Nida said, having hopped to her feet and bounded over to inspect the item.

“Indeed it is,” Dralos confirmed. “I managed to… procure it before the explosion, though I didn’t have a chance to deliver it. Most of your belongings are within it. I took the initiative to retrieve them once I was made aware of your survival and speech by the field marshals.”

Seeing my look of confusion, and likely remembering what I’d just asked her, Nida added, “A storage ring is engraved with a type of expansion magic. I don’t completely understand how they’re made, but you can place belongings within it.”

“Fascinating,” I said.

“The space inside this particular ring is rather large,” Dralos continued. “I…” He hesitated with a slight smile, indicating his pause was more for show than anything else, “procured it from the duke’s belongings. If I’d realized he would not survive, I would have taken more.” He shrugged. “I believe the storage ring should be able to fit anything you touch and direct into it, up to,” he twisted his lips in thought, “about the size of a large bed.”