“You’re bleeding,” Chrys noted. Her casual observance quieted the room, and everyone turned to see who she was talking to.

I was the one with blood spilling out of a wound that still had a knife in it. When had that gotten there? I couldn’t remember being stabbed, and yet there was a dagger crafted of silver fire imbedded in my side. It had even managed to melt through the magic resistant armor I wore, my scales, and into my flesh.

Now that I saw it, I realized I couldn’t feel most of my lower body. Numbness spread within me.

“Let me heal you,” Chrys said.

“—No!” Arx Maxima’s voice stopped Chrys.

“That’s a fragment of Mithras. If you use magic on it, it will only grow stronger. How far has the fire progressed through your body?” Corvusol demanded.

“I didn’t know I was hurt. Its to my neck?” I answered.

Amaranthine winced, and in a blur her hand struck my throat. I vaguely noticed the world looked odd, and then darkness swallowed my senses.

The darkness was brief, then gave way to the weird movement that accompanied being teleported. I stood at the portal to the Command Deck, in fully repaired armor. My companions were still moving towards the naked, headless corpse of my other body on the floor.

Power welled up inside of me.

Echo of Inevitability is inaccessible for the next ten minutes. Please refrain from early termination.

“What the fuck, Sadow!?” Claire screamed and lunged at the Fey, but Amaranthine casually evaded her.

“Look over here,” I growled.

“Better than your first death belong to me than to Mithras,” Amaranthine said with a dark smile at me.

“How’d that happen so quickly?” Remy asked.

“Or better yet, someone explain the whole thing to me? Good to know I can survive beheading… I guess.” I laughed, but Arx Maxima teleported my old body off the command deck to diminish the scene and lighten tensions.

“Echo of Inevitability is Emery’s final ability under vitality. There was no scenario in which Mithras did not take Emery’s life, so I prepared his resurrection.” Arx Maxima explained.

“Why didn’t you tell me? I know you hinted at it, but couldn’t you just tell me?” I asked while tried to process if I was even mad. Uncertainty plagued my mind. Had anything about me changed in Arx Maxima’s revival process? But I felt like me, as much as I ever did in recent weeks. Every odd feeling felt exacerbated because I could feel changes sweeping through my body. The formation of my final ability pushed me into the land of Citrine, and accompanied a powerful boost to my physical abilities.

The silicate structures of Arx Maxima also grew ever more in my body. I could feel the crystal formations as they poked, adjusted, grew, and spread inside of my cells. I could only compare it to a slow wave of betterment. The astral force pool in the lower part of my vision updated and ticked up to 6,000/6,000.

“Mithras sacrificed a portion of his own essence to kill you. If Amaranthine hadn’t killed you before the flame fully consumed you resurrection would have been impossible. Even among Mist Lords, few would survive an attack backed by sacrificial intent from Mithras. It would have killed someone with magic, like Claire or I, instantly,” Remy explained.

“We’ll count it as a small miracle that he didn’t dub anyone but me worthy of such a sacrifice to kill, then.” I noticed my voice had grown deeper, and my perspective felt a little higher. My armor still fit me well, so I expected Arx Maxima had somehow modified it to fit me on reconstitution? The loss and sadness she had described at the true deaths of her old envoys echoed in my mind. How dedicated to my survival was Arx Maxima? How many of the resources at her disposal were truly dedicated to my continued existence?

“Remy? Where is Etienne? Where is Marius? How did you save me?” a familiar voice asked. Someone had already given Coralie a robe to cover up, but the paleness of her skin felt odd. Mom had been pallid, but not that pale. She also didn’t have any bound concepts anymore.

“I have Marius’s remains, we’ll try to perform a resurrection soon,” Remy said, and even I heard the doubt in his voice.

Mom, though, latched onto that.

“Where even are we, and since when are you friends with so many strange…. People?” Mom almost failed to save herself there. Maybe in the eyes of Xian and Chrys she didn’t succeed, from the flat expressions on their faces.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“This is Monados, Cora. Emery’s the Mist Lord here,” Remy answered with a glance my way.

“Emery is here. Where?”

“Right here, Mom.” I answered. It came out gruffer than I intended, and little sparks of lightning and chaos tickled my lips unhelpfully.

Mom’s eyes widened in horror as she looked at me. I had reached seven feet tall, I estimated, had broad shoulders, black scales, a thick tail with a spike at the end, and horns and purple hair. Not exactly the little boy who looked an awful lot like her a mere few weeks ago. At least she hadn’t seen the dead version of me, that wouldn’t have been fun to explain.

“Emery?” Mom asked in disbelief.

“Yep, it’s me. I’ve had an eventful couple of weeks,” I tried to say as a joke.

“It’s been months! Why didn’t you come back? That’s when everything went wrong.” Mom cried.

“Remy, Miyuki, please escort Mrs. LeeRoy to one of the spare quarters, and keep her company.” Arx Maxima spoke over everyone. “If we are going to resurrect her husband, we must prepare for the ritual.” Arx Maxima dismissed mom and the kitsune without leaving them room to protest.

“Xian, Chrys, please proceed to Ritual Room 1A.”

“What should I do?” Claire asked.

“Prepare for need to obtain reagents from other realms,” Arx Maxima instructed Claire, who nodded and set to checking her gear.

“Amaranthine, please monitor Emery while he absorbs this,” Arx Maxima finally addressed Amaranthine and I.

I nearly protested that I didn’t need a babysitter but stopped when a metallic red cloak appeared in front of me.

“This is the Cloak of Gadreel, as promised. With your advancement to Citrine, you have qualified to advance to the rank of Legate.” Arx Maxima seemed torn between wanting this to be a showy and celebratory occasion and awareness of the grim mood.

“This better not send me through another portal, Arx Maxima,” I grumbled and took the cloak.

Arx Maxima and Corvusol flickered pulses of light at one another. I assumed they were communicating with one another in a way the rest of us couldn’t understand, so I left the bridge with Amaranthine, who led us towards her ambassadorial suite when the elevator opened. We didn’t go beyond the parlor, though, before I swept the cloak over my shoulders and cinched it.

The moment the clasp locked; I could feel the Cloak of Gadreel flow into my back as if it were an animate cluster of dust. In my mind’s eye I could see the large, bulky dragon wings growing out of my back. The thickly muscled wings were clad in the same black scales as my body, and the sudden shift in musculature across my back resulted in my new wings and arms both moving in twitchy uncontrolled spasms. The process lacked the tortuous pain of when my entire skeletal structure changed. This time it was only my back, and I stayed aware for the whole process.

The new sensations of wings felt difficult to work out. Any new set of muscles was bound to cause confusion for your nervous system, and it took minutes to work out even basic elementary control of the large wings.

“You’re going to crash so many times,” Amaranthine commented while she laughed at me.

I shrugged.

“That didn’t go the way I hoped it would,” I confided in Amaranthine.

“Mithras saw our movements ahead of time. I suppose it was an oversight to believe that he wouldn’t know of the subversion of his adventuring guilds after all this time, and that he wouldn’t act against those who betrayed him in his own realm.” Amaranthine grimaced at the way things had gone so pear-shaped.

“We failed at our mission,” Amaranthine said meaningfully.

“We did,” I agreed, but I didn’t see why she frowned at me so severely.

“You don’t have to keep the bargain, I provided none of the expected aid.” Amaranthine dangled freedom in front of me.

“I want to,” I said. “Do you?”

“Yes, but I won’t let Mithras escape us next time,” Amaranthine vowed darkly.

“What are the chances of Arx Maxima and Corvusol reviving my dad?” I looked into those red eyes for an honest answer.

“With Xian? Moderate. Did you not investigate his final concept? His second and third abilities are hard to believe. Infinite Potential lets him break past limitations, and Path Maker allows him to break the laws of causality to achieve impossible results. Without Xian? Nonexistent. Those consumed by the silver flames don’t come back.”

“Next time we fight someone with lethal attacks like that, let’s talk about that beforehand?” I suggested quietly. Had everyone but me known about the silver fire? I didn’t think so. Yet that sort of thing should have been brought up. Bad planning, underestimation of our foes, and arrogance had landed us in a boiling cauldron of problems.

“Of course. Interacting with you, or anyone but Corvie as an ally, is a new experience for me. I assumed Arx Maxima had informed you of the dangers, but given her seclusion since the cataclysm that has proven to have been a foolhardy assumption. The blame for the failure to communicate the strength of Mithras falls on Corvusol and I.” Amaranthine admitted with a vulnerability that made me hate Mithras even more.

“There’s plenty of regrets to go around,” I grimaced. Maybe, just maybe, Claire’s family escaped with whatever adventurers busted out of the city, but if not, Claire had lost more than Remy or I. We had, at least, saved Mom.

“How does it feel, to be a real dragon, with scales, claws, wings, and breath?” Amaranthine tried to shift the topic.

“I feel the same as before,” I said with an emptiness I hated. Not that long ago I had been jealous of Mikhail’s wings and wanted my own. Now that I had them, they didn’t feel that important. I didn’t even want to face the idea of flying right now, and all I could think about was the others dealing with Mom or the ritual of trying to resurrect Dad. Should I have tried to grab Etienne’s body, too? Maybe Xian could have worked his rule breaking powers on Etienne.

I destroyed the doorway, and it didn’t seem possible that Katrina hadn’t obliterated the body after our departure, with it taking out the doorway for me.

“Do you want me accompany you?” Amaranthine asked me.

“I do,” I answered honestly. I could try to pretend to be tough, but in becoming who I was now, I had moved away from my friends and family. I wasn’t yet at Amaranthine’s level, but I was determined to catch up as quickly as I could. If she hadn’t had to protect me or others, perhaps Mithras would’ve been killed in truth. I still had the dagger, at least, and in the future I didn’t need to worry about the fleshy vessels he attached himself to. How many times would he survive a dagger to the heart of a thrall or host?

“And do you want me to explain who I am to your mother?” Amaranthine asked, but this time with an arched brow.

“Uh, no. I’ll handle that.” I coughed awkwardly.