Ascension.

What is it, exactly? To rise, in an abstract way. To become more than just oneself. To become something more. And it was a moment of our history that shattered the world and everything it could have been, if only we had known what the consequences would be...

1303 AD. The Conclave has won the War of the Magi, Crosomer is dead, his armies disbanded, and the Conclave survived, barely if that. A peace agreement was reached and a new policy called "The Veil" was established, wherein almost all non-magical sentients would be stripped of the memories of what had transpired for five years, a civil war of mages, Kin, and dragons.

What followed next is less understood. In March of 1303, dragon ambassadors of the varying clans--from both sides of the conflict--met in modern-day Madrid, Spain. Witness reports from the Aei'lath clan, the few willing to go on record, indicated the dragon clans were discussing their future as a species in this world. They easily had the power to dominate all life on this planet given their intrinsic ability to generate mana and use magic of particular strength.

But the mage rebellion shed light on the fact that the dragon race would never recover their empire. And they could not hide in the far reaches of the world forever.

A new plan was needed. Dragonkind could not coexist with humans. Unlike the dwarven and the elvish who were almost identical in physical form to a normal human, dragons could not hope to blend in, not en masse. Volkir Menrayas, one of the greatest dragon sages of modern draconic history, promised a solution to find a new homeworld or place for dragons to settle and rebuild–one that did not use the same dangerous astral gates that had been used by the Outsiders in the Schism War some 3300 years prior.

Between March and June of 1303, there were multiple reports of dragon clans gathering in secluded areas, with massive hauls of Mana crystals being transported in their possession. What happened next is not fully understood even today, but the dragons were reported as missing a short time later. The sites they had gathered at showed signs of massive energy release--the only traces of anything left were fragments of mana, but the dragons had disappeared without a trace. No remains were recovered, not even dust as is typical of dragons expiring and the result of decay of alchemical reagents stored within their bodies. The means and methods of what magic they used were unclear at first.

Millions mourned their disappearance. The dragons that remained, wept for the loss of their kindred. A racial annihilation had almost been enacted by misguided attempts to run away from the world’s problems, some argued. Others argued it was their reckoning overdue for the Schism war and the excesses of some branches of the draconic empire that had gone too far in their reign thousands of years prior.

The prevailing theory is that Volkir had found a way for dragons to reach an ascendant form--pure energy. Others theorize the process went horribly, horribly wrong, and merely atomized the dragons upon invocation of this magic. However, these theories have been debunked in recent decades due to a discovery that proves Volkir was at least partially successful:

The discovery of the Drakensouls.

Julia turns the page and sees a copy of an old, black and white photo with ‘Sept 1917’ etched on it. German soldiers surround a dragon, covered in the tattered remains of his uniform. They look at him in awe, and for a few moments in that awful, awful war of trench warfare and massive, unparalleled death for no apparent gains, a true miracle was witnessed. She’s in awe–this isn’t an illustration. This one is real. She nudges Drenar, and he’s speechless.

This just brings it so close to home now. This is what we’re becoming. She continues reading before she sinks into the thought any further.

It has long been established that dragons can mate with humans when assuming a human form, and that any resulting offspring will be born human, but gain the ability to assume the form of their heritage through Awakening, a transformation observed in the latter stages of puberty. These 'new' transformations typically occur in people with only trace draconic genetic material, typically on the order of 25% or less. When the first reports were made of these unexpected Awakenings, an incredible discovery was made.

The souls of the dragons were intact within the newly Awakened humans. And more surprisingly, they were able to communicate with their host! It is in effect limited, localized telepathy between host and dragon, and also important is the dragon's memories were intact, able to recollect large swaths of the memories of their previous lives--or continued lives, as some have stated

Thorough study of this new hybrid has also indicated even the dragons don't know how they ended up in a host body, indicating that perhaps something went awry during the process, along with a notable void in memories immediately before the Ascension events.

For the host, being a drakensoul is nearly identical to being a human-dragon hybrid, and are in full control of their abilities with two souls effectively merged into one, but with two consciousnesses. The relationship is symbiotic rather than parasitic or invasive.

It is interesting to note that on rare occasions, half-dragon hybrids have merged with a drakensoul, and are arguably the paragons of our time. Already a powerful entity by themselves, but combined with the wisdom and memories of a dragon of a previous life, they have demonstrated immense capabilities in strength, cunning, and magical abilities beyond even the traditional hybrids. Because of the extremely limited instances of this being reported, it is difficult to conjecture the specifics of the physiology of such individuals. If more appear, there should be an intensive study of this sub-group of drakensouls.

Perhaps if Volkir reappeared, he could explain what the plan was, and where it went wrong. The dragon souls long for their bodies, but if there was any way to recover a physical form, it has not been discovered yet. As of this writing in 1988, there are but a few thousand drakensoul in the world, and it may take hundreds of years for the remaining dragons to emerge in human hosts. If at all. The Ascension event is commonly referred to as a tipping point in the prevalence of magical influence on world history. Mages have been pushed further and further to the margins in the intervening centuries, and based on recent predictions, mage-kind will disappear sometime in the mid-21st century as there are many who refuse to utilize magic for any reason despite their abilities, citing the inherent risks to the natural course of history. This may be an unintended side-effect of the Veil protocol, where too much caution is given to keeping magic a secret from the world.

The Drakensouls could disrupt that trajectory, however. With millions of dragonkin that disappeared during the Ascension event, they could disrupt the world balance as we know it. The recovery of knowledge, culture and the immense power shift could radically alter the modern day geopolitical landscape in ways we cannot predict.

Dragonkind may not have needed us...but in the end, we may need them to survive as a species, to learn how to balance our existence with the world.

To co-exist with our world.

Julia finished reading the particular passage a hair faster than Drenar and simply stared at the page, rubbing her temples. "Holy crap. Millions of dragons? Millions?” She had a notion that they couldn't possibly be the last ones in existence, but this history blows her mind. Drenar however, has latched onto something even more personally profound.

“Alex is a dragon. He’s real.” Both of them sat back on the bench, floored by the revelation. "So, I now share real estate space in my head with a dragon. I have no idea how to feel about that. Elated? Anxious? Terror struck?"

"Mix of all three?" She has to sit back in the chair and just wrap her brain around this. Drenar is carrying a plus-one? Where's her magical dragon?! She wants one, too! On second thought, she'd probably drive any extra passengers insane with her rapid-fire train of thought. She narrows her eyes at him and gets back to the task at hand: whether Drenar is still Drenar! She still thinks so, but she can't be too sure. "So, any burning desires to stash gold in a cavern, raid and pillage towns, and lord yourself over the plebs of the world?"

"What?" Finally, she shook him out of his awe-struck daze. "Julia, I--no, I have no obsessions with material wealth, or committing arson! Besides, I have silver and azure colored scales. I am not that kind of dragon, I don't get fire breath!" Well, at least it's one less risk, she rationalizes. This awkward teen is still very much himself.

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"Nothing I can't fix with chemistry--"

"Julia, no." Perfect, he's back to his normal self, if he can take his stern tone to keep her away from her more ill-advised ideas. He rubs his cheeks with his hands, then taps his fingers on the desk. Like he's thinking about something, and then he lets out a small gasp. "Julia, I saw something I don't think anyone else has seen."

She leans in--what could be even bigger than confirming their findings. "So, a dragon in your head wasn't the biggest thing?"

"Okay, it's tied together, so hear me out." He steeples his fingers, and his eyes go low to the ground for a second before glancing up. “I saw them, Julia. In my dream. Millions of dragons, orbiting a void in the stranded lands–a world between worlds. That void is cracking apart, and dragons are spilling out, Awakening with those whose souls are closely matched to them. The one that’s attached to mine, I think he’s a relative. Alexander Sandrick Rashalda.” He tilts his head, as if there’s another realization. "I mean that's a little weird, picking up the soul of a distant dragon family member?"

“No shit, genius,” she responds testily. Then, she grins wildly. “Oh Drenar, this is both fantastic and possibly mildly terrifying!” she exhales with nervous laughter. “I have so many more questions! But…Wait. I haven’t had any dreams like that, but you did. Why the difference?”

He tilts his head, and glances at the book for a second. "You could be a half-dragon. Same symptoms, awakening is almost identical to what we've read so far. Have you heard any random voices in your head that aren’t part of your train of thought?” She ponders his question for a moment and comes up empty.

“Uh…no? I mean other than just my average half a dozen bad ideas an hour.” It's more like a dozen per hour, but she's gotten good at filtering them out.

“Then that probably makes you half-dragon,” he concludes.

"You mean to tell me I just lost half my humanity in a heartbeat?" It’s the fastest knee-jerk reaction she's ever had, and Drenar winces.

"Being human isn't a prerequisite for having humanity, Julia," he offers softly after a few seconds. It is a little terrifying, and exciting. “I mean, you could be just a mage. That’s nothing to sneeze at either, but being half dragon?”

"No way. Elemental plasma is in the realm of draconic superpowers. Ooh! I could be a superhero! Super…dragon? The title needs work!” she declares, much to his amusement. “Of course, it also means the parents left me in the dark, big time. Focus on putting other pieces of this big jigsaw puzzle together," she asks with more restraint.

“Yeah, this totally explains a few things,” he states with firmness.

“It does? How?" She's wondering if they missed signs from before.

“Maybe. Also, if I start randomly talking, and it’s not directed at you, it’s probably Alex. Just so you’re aware," he declares. She jostles his hair just to annoy him.

“Preemptively calling out crazy behavior, does not qualify you as less crazy, and you were already just a wee bit crazy, in a good way,” Julia poses. He gives her a sour look. She gently points her finger at his temple, and he grunts irritably. “Is he in there?”

“Laugh it up, Julia. Not like this isn’t an existential crisis only subdued by my iron will,” he retorts. “He's like…a whisper, in the back of my head. And I know he isn’t my imagination, he's like…layered on. I can tell if he’s present, there’s just this…feeling that doesn’t translate to normal senses,” he explained. “Then again, I’ve heard him maybe a couple of times when I’ve been awake.”

“Like a…psychic radio?” she proposes.

“Kinda, sorta. I don’t know if that changes after the first time I transform though,” he admits. “Alright, let me think for a second, what else can be explained by all this? Going sequentially…” he trails off, and he narrows his eyes. “Ah Nick, you magnificent bastard,” he mutters.

"What about Nick?" She still refuses to believe that guy could be some kind of magical secret agent, but then again, Drenar's convinced.

“He mentioned the Draconomicon in history class last week, and I thought he was just having a good laugh when commenting on the immolation dragons go through when they die. He was just hiding the truth behind absurdity." Drenar's comment gets her attention.

“Uh, is mister California a dragon, and hid in the absurdity of it?” she asks.

He shrugs his shoulders in response. “I feel like that one is small potatoes to the discovery that souls exist. Or that dragons exist, and there’s a whole slice of the history of the world that got put into a dustbin. Mostly because mages kinda suck at keeping the peace.”

She taps the desk while pondering this. "You know what’s truly nuts? They’re not the only magical species, just by the way they name-dropped elves, dwarves, kitsune, and more like it's no big deal. I don’t want to know how they managed to grease the skids to keep all that under wraps and off of social media,” she adds. Everyone has a camera phone. How does that just not blow up on viral videos, if they get caught in the open?

“Money?” he proposes. Julia scowls at him. “Lots of money. Billions of monies.”

She snerks at this one. “Is that how Facebook can lose billions and still be floating on?”

“The same can’t be said of the great big blue tweet bird,” he sighs. “Well, uh, I’m drawing a blank on what to do next. I need to commune with my dragon soul. Except I have no idea how this works.”

“We might be waiting on that one until you Awaken. Just don’t start talking to yourself, Drenar," she points out.

“Noted. In the meantime, got any ideas on where we even start to kick over rocks?” she snaps her fingers, and nods before addressing him.

"Yeah, let's go check out that residence. If that person can tell us more about who lived in that house, we can maybe track down Vertimer.” It sounds like a firm plan, to her at least.

“And ask him what?”

“Uh, just about anything and everything we can. And whether we have a pending lobotomy just for stumbling on this by accident,” she adds in a beat of dark humor.

"Yeah I can get behind that, I’m tired of this claustrophobic room and mildew, let’s jet. I’ll risk a pending lobotomy if I never have to taste spores again," he adds with a wrinkle of his nose. "It's like, overpowering. Maybe this is what Evan was talking about for enhanced senses."

"Yeah, let's jet, and go seek more super dangerous secrets. If they're already gonna lobotomize, might as well get some value from our efforts." She packs up the book in his bag and they depart out the door and click the lights off, and drop off the key with the librarian.

The woman gives them a questioning expression when Drenar shows her the book. "That's uh...a very strange book to be put in storage," she admits when she looks at it, then frowns when she can't find a tag to scan into the reader on the desk. "Weird. I don't think this is even in the system. Let me check." She types in a few commands on the keyboard. The sound of tapping keys is practically deafening to her.

After a minute she leans back, her fingers drumming on the desk impatiently. "Sorry kids, I can't lend this one out. It's restricted."

"What do you mean, 'restricted'?" Julia asks with just a hint of annoyance in her voice. "Look at it, it's a work of fiction about cryptids!" She's rather proud of that deflection--this librarian is better off not knowing things that look like giant centipedes exist, and that they have poisonous breath that can paralyze you. Or that they will nibble on your body while you're still alive. Among other winners of nightmare fuel abilities.

"I can't lend it. It's flagged as an...hang on, 'important historical documents' according to this. Wait, this is..." the librarian trails off, furrowing her brow, then laughs. "This looks like a fantasy book! Someone must have misfiled this thing. You know what, keep it. Take as much time as you need," she said after handing it back to her.

"Thanks! We'll bring it back in pristine condition!" Julia says excitedly and practically skips her way out the door. Drenar chuckles softly.

“So, what odds do you give on this random trek to some lady we don’t know going completely haywire?” he asks casually before starting the car a minute later. She purses her lips before going with her gut answer.

“Too damn high. Let’s go find a magical creature specialist.”