"There's no need to be so anxious, son, really," my father tells me when we reunite and he shows us into one of the lab meeting rooms. I quickly check Erik's whereabouts, but he's still with Chancellor Sythara. It's been hours, what on Earth is he discussing with my uncle?
"Let me present you our findings," Noage takes the spotlight when we sit down around a table and Nyx activates a projection screen. "First of all, and that's not surprising because we pretty much anticipated it, His Majesty's overall build is mostly Celestial because his body needs to be light for flying. That entails hollow bones, lungs with more capacity and other related things."
"You said mostly," I clutch my stomach.
"Well," Noage sighs, "I'm afraid your digestive system took the heaviest toll of hybridisation and, as a result, is the most chaotic combination of genes in your entire body, Your Majesty. You inherited a rather small Divementis stomach but Celestial dietary requirements. A Celestial metabolism is much faster and even though the Divementis brain takes 10% more calories than the Celestial one, we have to take into account magic casting and flying which are both extremely energy demanding."
"Meaning?" Liana frowns.
"Meaning His Majesty should eat a lot, but he can't," Noage just says it plainly because there's no sugarcoating it anyway. "I'm sorry to say that His Majesty won't ever be able to put on weight. It's physiologically impossible for him."
"B-but what if we feed him nutritionally rich food instead?" Liana suggests desperately.
"That would prevent him losing weight, but not him put on weight, at least not significantly," Noage shakes his head. "If we keep overstuffing His Majesty, we will just upset his stomach and he might throw up. I'm afraid that there's no other way than to be extremely careful with his diet. His Majesty has to eat balanced meals with uncompromising regularity. We can downsize portions a bit to make him more comfortable, but there's no skipping snacks anymore."
I get scared because eating has always been my weak spot even way before the transformation. I might not have an eating disorder by definition, but since I've experienced an upset stomach countless times, I developed peculiar eating coping mechanisms.
"There's no need to worry, son," my father tries to calm me down. "You will be eating Divementis portion sizes from now on so snacking won't be such a chore. Besides, Celestials burn sugar like no other race. You can look forward to many sweet and delicious snacks."
"Are sweets balanced meals?" Gotrid doubts.
"No issue there, I wanted to suggest the same," Noage states. "His Majesty can forget about a dessert right after a meal because that's when he will have to eat as much protein, fat and fibre as his small stomach allows, but snacks can be cookies, cakes and fruit so that he has enough quick energy for spellcasting and flying."
"It won't be so bad after all, hon," Gotrid tries to encourage me because I still have a doubtful expression on my face.
"You'll be watching over my diet ever more fiercely now," I mumble, annoyed.
"As your father said, we won't be forcing you to eat huge portions," Liana comforts me. "We'll just add snacks and insist on regularity, that's all."
"Noage, and Aefener's wings?" Gotrid asks something entirely else all of a sudden.
"What about them?" I pull his sleeve, not liking where this is going.
"He doesn't like folding them too tightly," Gotrid doesn't feel ashamed to tell on me. "In fact, he uses every opportunity to spread them. He gets cramps after just two days without flying whereas the rest of us can manage a week if it can't be helped."
"That has nothing to do with the Divementis hybridisation," Noage dismisses it. "His Majesty's wings are purely Celestial. I suspect it must have something to do with him being the embodiment of magic. Isn't your Emperor considered to be also the embodiment of air? It's your racial element, after all. Don't scold His Majesty for not folding his wings properly and feeling uneasy on the ground, I don't think he can help it."
"We would never berate our Emperor for being genuine to himself," Liana assures everyone because the Divementis give her a scornful look. "It's often difficult to find time for a long flying session that would satisfy our embodiment of magic."
"Regular exercise is important for any Celestial," Noage reminds her. "Celestials don't move as much on the ground so you have to find means how to schedule your flying sessions around work, not the other way around."
"Noted," Liana agrees obediently. "What about His Majesty's eyes?"
"Another purely Celestial feature," Noage confirms. "As a creature born to fly, he needs to be able to withstand bright sunlight and not be blinded easily. His Majesty's facial bones are mostly Divementis, though, that's why his looks are so androgynous."
"And... his brain?" Gotrid finally asks the most important question because I'm reluctant to do so myself.
"That took us the longest to analyse," Nyx speaks up. "If all human DNA mutated into the Celestial DNA as was the case with other transformed Draconians, His Majesty should have lost the emphatic part of his telepathic ability. However, he retained it. To do so, His Majesty's unique brain had to withstand the transformation and hold onto a fraction of human DNA."
"I'm still partly human?!" I'm astonished to hear and I'm not the only one.
"Well, it's a really tiny part and detectable only in Your Majesty's brain," Nyx explains. "Nevertheless, there's a distinctive trace of your mother's genes. It's a shocking discovery especially because a year after the transformation, there's no trace of any residual human DNA in Draconians."
I'm so moved that my eyes get wet. I have never really thought about it, but now I'm happy that I still have a part of my mother inside of me. It was she who gave me the emphatic ability I value so much.
"What about immortality?" I'm almost afraid to ask, but I have to. "You disproved that, right?"
"I think a lengthy explanation is in order," my father says before giving me an answer. "All Draconian races are much more resistant and longer-lived than humans so let me explain how that works first so that you truly understand."
"Okay then," I sigh resignedly and the anticipation is making me anxious.
"Let's start with Clawfangs whose lifespan is closest to humans," he says. "Their bodies resemble feline, canine and vulpine animals and even though they aren't that sturdy, they are extremely agile, their saliva has anti-bacterial properties and they heal fast. However, they live only up to a hundred years and age just as humans do."
"I know that it sounds racist, but we'd always considered them to be sentient animals and not much more," Nyx admits. "We mean to change our outdated way of thinking, of course. Clawfangs are smart, quick, excellent fighters and experts in recon, stealth and beast taming. We certainly won't underestimate their abilities in the upcoming war. The initial success of our endeavour is going to depend primarily on them."
I'm glad to hear that. I would be angry at the Divementis if they didn't consider Clawfangs to be equal partners just because Clawfangs have an entirely different way of living.
"As for the Dragonkin," my father continues, "they developed bodies that are almost impossible to hurt. They have slow metabolisms, the ability to hibernate and they can generate fire within their bodies so they aren't reliant on outer sources of heat as other reptilians are. They age more slowly and can live up to a hundred and fifty. Maybe a bit longer, depending on how often they hibernate."
Huh, the Dragonkin have the ability to hibernate? That's new to me. There might have been a mention of that in the game, but I haven't studied the Dragonkin lore in detail. I'm sure it's nothing new to the Dragonkin themselves, though. I'll have to ask Fefnir about it.
"Let me explain the Earthborn," Noage demands to speak about his people. "We possess enhanced DNA repair mechanism and optimised cellular metabolism. As for illnesses, we can heal pretty much anything not only in ourselves but also in other living organisms. We do age but extremely slowly. The Earthborn have the potential to live up to four hundred years."
"Thank you, Doctor Noage," my father appreciates and takes over again. "The Divementis might not be natural genetic engineers, but we have the unique ability to store knowledge in the shared consciousness of our entire species. We quickly became the most technologically advanced race and significantly prolonged our lifespans through the power of our minds and technology, giving us the same longevity as the Earthborn have."
That leaves Celestials thenâthe only race which the Divementis considered to be their equal. Frankly, I'm more curious about my winged ancestors than the Divementis.
"Celestials were also a technological race even though it might not have been so obvious from the outside," he says. "For other races, their magic seemed to be, well, magic. Unless one is born a Celestial, it's impossible to understand how it works. They built flying cities and based their technology entirely on the mana power source."
"Is our mana circuit responsible for giving us miraculous longevity?" Liana asks eagerly.
"Yes, the energy your bodies naturally produce is rejuvenating your cells which significantly slows down the shortening of chromosomal telomeres," he confirms. "Celestials are slowly ageing inside, but since your skin retains its plasticity, you look young no matter the age. Generally, the better the caster, the longer lifespan they have. However, even the clumsiest Celestial can live for at least six hundred years."
"Damn, we will have so much time to spend together, just imagine it, hon," Gotrid takes my hand and kisses it, feeling thrilled about the prospect.
"Only you will, Royal Consort," Noage says and looks at my father who nods approvingly. "As for His Majesty, I've just checked it and the Divementis double-checked it. His telomeres are stable."
"What does that even mean?" I frown because I have zero knowledge of genetics.
"It means that you're indeed immortal, son," my father concludes with a content smile.
He says it so simply, yet it's anything but that.