Dad stayed with Mom and I returned to Britannia.

Each time, my arrival was a spectacle. Some people loved to paint me and sometimes I would pause for a moment to please them.

After the trip, I would rush back to my square house and see if any dragons were around.

Then... sin.

They brought me barrels of beer. Dragons hated fizzy stuff. But I loved it.

And from time to time they brought me good smoked and fried food (fish, octopus, potatoes...)

But Gamblin came to my "palace", worried.

"Torin, it's always good to see you... "

He settled down and smelled the aroma on my grill.

"You can help yourself, we just brought them in..."

Gamblin: "I don't see your wives..."

"Oh, they're with Esme teaching them women's stuff and Ragul is training Rubix... I dropped them off on the way..."

Gamblin: "Yes, we don't see you so much these days..."

"Yes, I have a lot to learn again. A dragon's life is very different and I have to relearn everything about hunting and ritual fighting. Also mom Valtrax is teaching me our history and culture and the differences with the virtues. But it's making my head spin.

I will never be a mage, a little but mostly a paladin. Well... that's the best part. A dragon paladin... I heal by imposing paws! hahaha!"

Gamblin sketched a smile but he still had me a little disappointed.

"You know, Torin, there isn't a day that I regret not having better judgment but there were also all the students to protect and the academy from those tormentors. I am indebted to you and I hope you can one day make amends."

I sighed, the pain still burning, "I don't blame you but I hope that in time I won't think about it anymore.", returning a smile to him.

"There's the Cocytus Keep and in the heart of it, there's a draconic shrine with the statue of Exodus. I'm sure there is a way to convert or activate that artifact. Translating it is one thing, but activating it is another. And it takes a powerful magician. Like Valtrax or Rubix. I don't have enough mana. It's made by dragons for dragons. Only Exodus could activate it." I'm sorry"

But stupid as I was, I didn't know how to lie...

Instead of looking defeated because there was no solution, I had a smile on my face.

"Ah. but that's great... I'm looking forward to trying.."

The problem was that I had my black beard and could already see myself in a nest or a giant bed with my wives... I was stuttering and shaking...

And luckily I had a loincloth.... My excitement was at its peak and steam was coming out of my nostrils."

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My tail was swishing around the room and scraping the heavy stones. It was dangerous! But I didn't realize it.

Gamblin thought about this laughable and comical problem, but it was far from being so.

I was unknowingly losing my self-control and that's when I became dangerous.

He was talking to me but I was somewhere else, I was already in the nest with my wives in the secret cabin.

"Torin??? Torin???? "

I fell back to earth, sad of my disillusionment and started to cry...

"I I I can't think of anything else!!!! This is terrible...Master Gamblin..."

"You know, Torin, all kids your age go through this, but I understand your frustration.."

He also felt my magic rush through me like a volcano on the verge of eruption...

Then he dropped a tear and said in his beard... "Forgive me..."

I heard his lament and I thought he was feeling guilty for my transformation but it was for something else much more sinister.

"Ahhh. I'm too old for this..."

He handed me the trunk...

"Excitedly, again, my tail slapped the ceiling and I said, "Thank you...Daddy will help me. Oh. Sorry, Mom."

Gamblin had stood up but when he heard my sentence, he stopped and clenched his fist, then without turning around, he went to the castle.

"HAH HAH HAHA!!! At least!!.... Dragons! TREMBLE...because you are really going to TREMBLE! SNORT! Fire came out of my nose! Then, all of a sudden, I wasn't hungry or tired anymore!

I wanted to go home to dad!

I went out like a flash and a big gust of wind almost knocked over some stalls in the market place of the main square.

Some of the merchants said "Ah... Torin is really excited today...

Do you have seen his black beard?

Poor kid."

A shopkeeper replied, "Uh, poor wives!"

Then came the laughter.

The clamor of joy and laughter went up with the wind to a loophole where Lord British used to watch the castle market.

Life had regained its lightness.

But he rubbed his beard and muttered, "Poor Torin. I hope you will forgive me one day."

Then he went back to his office and wrote mission letters and also a letter to me.

He found the archives and the trace of Rubix's parents. They would still be alive and ridden by knights.

The drama had to stop and he ordered them to be brought here from the island of Skarabrae.

Then Gamblin arrived and knocked on his door.

He opened a secret compartment in his office and put the letters back in.

Then he pulled out a letter in magical characters that only he, Shepard and Gamblin could see.

The letter was signed by a deity. Selene.

Gamblin, out of breath from the stairs and the walk, helped himself to some fruit in a bowl and Lord British stood up and poured him a good brandy to regain his strength and especially to overcome the bad news.

"Selene has also been touched and has changed her mind. She proposes that instead of sealing him, mutilating him or killing him there is another solution. It's also for his own good and for him to be happy. This world is frozen, as she says, and Torin is constantly evolving. This world will soon be a prison of suffering for him. If nothing is done, sooner or later, Britannia will no longer be able to absorb the density of magic that is growing in him. His actions have only delayed the inevitable. Volcanoes will rip apart and fill the underground worlds, then lava will stream out through the cracks in the sea, then up the dungeons, destroying the shrines. The mountains will sink under their own weight and eventually we will all die.

We have maybe two more years, three at the most if we do nothing, and the longer we wait, the less we will know how to act...

The dwarven technology that allowed us to go to the other worlds of Sosaria is lost and no ship is able to function anymore. not to mention the weight and size of the dragons."

Gamblin listened to Lord Britih, but he looked even more grim.

"Exodus..."

Lord British..."??? What do you mean?"

Gamblin: "I felt it... the orb... it's destroyed but... it's in Exodus".

Lord British: "I don't understand..."

"Torin is out of control and it is very dangerous. He almost destroyed his palace...and he has blackouts but I have learned.... He is a very bad liar.."

"Gamblin, I don't follow you.."

The mage gathered his strength...

"Torin... he would have resurrected his father... Exodus.. "

The king dropped his glass and it rolled to the mage's feet. He bent down, wiped the solid glass and put it back on the table and stood up.

"Exodus, I felt his aura and his anger for a brief moment, but he must be with his female in her lair in the East Teeth. And Torin was smiling when I handed him the indecipherable scroll. "

Lord British reserved himself.

"We had one problem... now we have two..."

He looked Gamblin squarely in the eye.

"We're sticking to the plan! The problem is that unlike Torin, Exodus is cunning and Valtrax even more so."

Gamblin tapped the table.

"This is endless!"

Lord British: "But I have a feeling that if we carry out Selene's plan...we'll pay for it even more" It's as if everything is written in advance and events follow one another..."

Gamblin: "And if we told them the truth. At least we would escape the wrath of the people in case of failure."

Lord British: "In case of failure? There will be no one left!"

Shepard burst in.

"Selene told me everything, but Exodus, that changes everything!

Lord British: "And if he humanizes himself, if he succeeds?

Gamblin: "It doesn't matter because he's Thor! And with Exodus, we have half the time, maybe four times less..."

Shepard: "Then I'll do it my way. If he doesn't understand, Exodus will know and he can explain it to Torin. Besides, it's not a death sentence, it's an Eden for them, so they can start a new life without ties to the past."

They all put their hands on the glowing Ankh.

"For Britannia!"

Gamblin added, "For Torin!"