Kliss blushed even deeper. Then I saw the cogs in her head turning.

“You talk to the Hollow Mother… in your dreams?” She demanded.

“Not since I got the Lucid Dreamer skills,” I shook my head. “I’ve been feeding her lies for a year now, running my dreams in parallel using separate soul fragments. So far, she hasn’t noticed.”

“What if she does?” Kliss demanded.

“Then I’ll have to do something about it,” I replied.

“Something like…”

“Math can be very dangerous,” I said simply.

Kliss waited for me to elaborate further.

“Go practice swimming,” I said. “Don’t obsess over me, I’m safe. With my knowledge and your positively-charged dragonheart at our side, Hollow Mother won’t be able to reach us at all.”

“Fine,” Kliss said. “I’m scared that I’ll sink… but let me try this regardless.”

She turned around and marched to the water, quickly going under. She was indeed rapidly sinking and looked like she was panicking for a second. I pointed my armacus at her and cast anti-gravity.

Kliss shot out of the water.

“I’m… weightless?” She commented, sputtering water from her mouth.

“Not fully,” I said. “But I’ve reduced your weight to that of a human. Go ahead, keep trying.”

“Thanks,” she dove under the water once again.

I increased her weight, tracking her progress as she dove down to the corals. My Infoscopes floating nearby allowed me to see how much oxygen she had left. When Kliss turned back, I cast reversed gravity on her once again.

Kliss shot out of the water with a squeal and then paddled back to me and Delta.

“I don’t feel cold,” she said, turning to Delta. “You said this water’s cold.”

“It is freaking cold!” Delta huffed. She had wrapped herself in several layers of towels and was shivering.

“Your dragonheart is keeping you warm,” I addressed Kliss.

“Ah,” Kliss said simply and then became smothered by my sister.

Kliss had embraced her role as the local furnace and hugged Delta back, petting her on the head. My twin closed her eyes and started to purr almost like a cat.

Kliss waved a hand at me. I looked at her, in mild confusion for a brief second and then some part of my human mind clicked. She wanted me to join them.

I got off the rock and walked to the girls. Kliss drew me into the hug. The cold from my hands vanished. I relaxed into the embrace.

“This is so nice,” Delta purred, resting her head on my shoulder. “Can we try diving for treasure after?”

“We can,” I replied. “I spotted a chest buried in the silt, about 89 meters away from this island.”

“Yesssss,” my twin grinned. “You know… I thought that Kliss would be an impediment, but this… whatever this is, is amazing. She belongs here, with us.”

“Do I?” Kliss asked.

“Yes, you do,” Delta said. “I declare it so. Feel free to tell him the thing.”

“What thing?” I asked squinting at the girls who exchanged a look.

“I… erm,” Kliss muttered, blushing once more. “After Aradria attacked Cessna, I sold everything that my parents had left… and I… I bought Skyisle.”

“What?!” It was my turn to be very surprised.

“I’m the Baroness of Skyisle,” she said. “I own the land the village stands on and most of the forest around it. Hell, I own the entire magogenic fault.”

“That’s… amazing!” I grinned.

“It was very cheap,” Kliss said. “If you… if we find a way to clear the curse, then the land’s value will go up.”

“We will, but we won’t tell anyone about that,” I nodded. “It’s best if Skyisle is kept hidden for now. Hrmmm. What does this mean in terms of the local Overseer? Are you allowed to fire Ignatius?”

“Yes,” Kliss said, tensing up slightly. “I was going to fire him in person… but then I died and you brought me back as a chimera.”

“You can call him on Voicecast,” I said. “I’ll alter your voice with the bee-speaker so that you can sound like you used to."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Right,” Kliss relaxed. “He can make a voicecast call to Cessna to check the paperwork. I’ll tell him not to bother me, now that I’m in charge of Skyisle.”

“Great,” I said. “That’s one problem out of the way.”

“What other problems does my Barony have?” Kliss inquired.

“Giovashi,” I said. “Her priestesses have been asking around, trying to figure out who’s making the level 20 bypassing wooden armaci. I’ve had my dad’s workshop extra warded against scrying, but they suspect that Georgi is involved. She or her devotees might act soon.”

Kliss pursed her lips. “What are we going to do about them?”

“For now, nothing,” I said.

“What if she sends another dragon?” Kliss asked.

“I doubt that she has another dragon on call,” I said. “Without Giovashi showing up, there isn’t much that we can do. She’s the epicenter of our problems and I suspect that she’s not showing up because she knows that I have a weapon to take her out. Perhaps her precog power is telling her to stay away?”

“You do?” the dragon-girl squinted at me with emerald-ember eyes.

“I have a weapon for nearly every situation.” I smirked. “It pays to be prepared. Now that I’ve been made aware that you’re our Baroness… we’ll need to make an ant-human shaped approximately like you.”

“Why?” Kliss blinked.

“Baroness Kliss needs to survive the dragonfire with some burns,” I said. “Also, won’t the Empire send someone to investigate that downed ship?”

“I… I didn’t think about that,” Kliss muttered. “They probably will. I, erm, bequeathed Skysle to you, in case of my death.”

“That’s nice and all,” I said. “But I don’t want to be a Baron of Skyisle or whatever. I am happy being just a young, obedient Administrator who answers to the stern, iron-fisted, Baroness. Basically, if I need to push a policy through that the Elders of Skyisle won’t like, I’ll have someone to blame.”

“Right,” Kliss murmured. “So… you’ll need a patsy?”

“Essentially,” I nodded. “I don’t want the Guilds or Giovashi hounding me directly. We’ll sit the ant-shaped version of you in an office and have it talk calmly to the people.”

“Makes sense,” Kliss replied.

“Treasure, when?” Delta asked, opening one eye.

“Now! Let's go!” I laughed. “I am pretty sure that I found something nearby!”

----------------------------------------

Our hovercraft stopped directly above a medium sized, metal chest buried deep in silt, mud and rocks. I sent several Infoscopes directly towards it, scanning it once again. The chest was only 4 metres below us.

“See that pile of rubble down there?” I asked Kliss.

“Ohhh,” my apprentice peered through the water. “I see… something there in the Astral. I… I want it. It’s… gold!”

“Yes,” I nodded. “An entire chest worth of gold coins courtesy of some rich archmage that had a mansion here. Can you retrieve it?”

“I… I think so. I was able to go almost that deep in that island lake,” Kliss said.

“Great,” I said. “Jump in. I’ll monitor your oxygen levels and pull you up, if anything.”

This time Kliss was eager to get into the water. Her dragonic instinct must have demanded her to acquire the gold. She stared at the blue water for another couple of seconds and then dove, splashing and sinking rapidly down.

I increased her weight and she nearly slammed into the pile of rocks. Using her dense bones she lifted massive rubble pieces with ease, throwing them aside. In less than fourteen seconds she had the chest in her arms.

I pointed the gravity spell at her and the chest and she shot upwards with the gold in tow. Delta grabbed onto the panting Kliss and pulled her into our vessel.

Kliss sat onto the rubber-covered floor of the hovercraft and struck the old lock with her clawed hand a few times. The old metal disintegrated, releasing the latch.

The chest fell open and Kliss sat down and buried her fingers into the pile of gold coins with what looked like an eight-pointed star on one side and the face of a regal man on the other.

Then she shoved a few coins into her mouth with a wild, wide grin.

“Glllldd,” she murmured, chewing the coins. “Mmmmmm… so ncss”

“Don’t eat them all, dragon-bun,” Delta commented. “I’d like to buy some nice things.”

“Pffttt,” Kliss spat the coins out into her lap. “I am not literally eating the gold… I’m just… uhhh…”

“She’s claiming them,” I said. “With her magic. For hoarding purposes.”

“Don’t claim all of them,” Delta insisted, watching as Kliss dug another handful of coins into her mouth. “Should she be slobbering over our treasure? Slava, isn’t this like… ridiculously unhygienic?”

“From what I can see, her saliva obliterates germs,” I shrugged. “She should be fine.”

“Mmm-kay,” Delta sat down behind Kliss and grabbed onto the dragon-girl’s waist for warmth. “I’ll just be here then, trying not to be grossed out.”

“Pffffft,” Kliss spat out another small pile of gold into her lap, blushing furiously. “I can’t help this, Equality-damn it! I… when I see this gold I just want to chew it all! Arghhh!”

I sat down in front of Kliss.

“Don’t worry about it and don’t fight it,” I said. “This is natural. Claim as much gold as you want to.”

“I… I might claim all of it,” Kliss said as she stuffed another mouthful of coins.

“That’s fine,” I said. “I can see the magic markers you’re placing on the coins. If I need some gold I’ll cut them off your hoard.”

“Pfffftthh,” Kliss released the coins into her lap. “What? You can do that?”

“I can do lots of things,” I said.

“Except making me NOT a freaking dragon?” She hissed, grabbing more coins from the chest. “This is freaking embarrassing!”

“Pls stay a dragon,” Delta commented. “Your coin-slobbering is questionable, yes, but as long as you’re this warm – I'll love you forever.”

“FbMrdfhhd yfodh,” Kliss said something in response, mouth crammed with gold.

“Them's fighting words,” Delta replied. “Besties shouldn't use such harsh language.”

Kliss spat the gold into her arms and rubbed the coins on her fingers, making them hiss and melt into her skin.

“Ah, that's amazing,” she said, rolling her eyes back.

“I can have a local blacksmith shred the gold into flakes and have the seamstress turn it into under-armor coverall,” I suggested.

“That's a thing?” Kliss asked. “Wait, don't I need to lick the gold?”

“No, your sweat will work just as well to slowly dissolve it,” I said. "Why do you think dragons sleep on piles of gold?"

“A gold under-dress? That sounds... nice,” Kliss murmured. She rubbed a handful of gold on her cheeks with a big smile as if she was using a bar of cleansing soap.

“Dissolving our resources,” Delta lamented.

“Making our dragon-girl more powerful,” I clarified. “If we heal the Astral Ocean around Skyisle, gold will be much easier to attain. There are tons and tons of it buried in the ruins of Tricameron. Besides, remember what I said? When Kliss makes enough of this crystalline compound, we’ll be able to make you a glider. Right now, my armacus can only remove some weight of an object, that's not enough to make us fly.”

“Fineeee,” my twin grumbled in reply.