"Come on, Arthur, why won't you spar with me?" I asked him as we left the training room, it was the next day, he didn't want to train with me yesterday, and he didn't want to train with me today, but I saw that coming to be honest.
"Some other time, Veer, I don't want to fight anyone right now, I want to get use to everything currently going on in my body." Arthur said as we walked down a hallway towards our rooms. "Anyway, have you helped Ellie at all lately? I know she was talking about absorbing mana yesterday but didn't have any beast cores."
"You know how rare those things are?" I smiled at him. "You know how many of them I left behind, and how many I had, I only got two now left to give her. She is going to have to come up with another method to absorb mana if she wants me to help, because absorbing it regularly takes too long even with my help."
"I know what you are suggesting, we are not giving her the horn from Erie." Arthur read me like a book. "The beast cores you gave her should be enough for now, she is about to hit orange, that is a huge step for someone her age."
"True." I don't think Ellie gets past dark orange in the novel, so my goal was to change that somehow. "Sylvie is still absorbing mana, she is at it nonstop, she should be done soon, I've been helping her throughout the day."
"Yeah, she's probably almost out of mana." Arthur said as we turned the corner. "I went to see Cynthia yesterday; she still has not woken up. Do you think we messed up somewhere?"
"No, it's only been like three to four weeks since your return, she'll wake up in time." I honestly did not know if what I said was true or not, I think she will, I was no doctor though. "Arthur, there is something we need to talk about, something I wanted to bring up yesterday, but never did."
"Oh, and what is that?" He asked as we got closer to our rooms.
"First off, Aldir was the one who was supposed to tell you, but I don't think he will, so I'll do it." I paused and motioned for him to follow me to my room as we turned down our hallway. "Come to my room, and we can chat in private, and try to keep these thoughts away from Sylvie for now."
"Alright?" Arthur said questioningly as we entered my room, we both sat down around the couch area. "Okay, go ahead, what's so serious?"
"Aldir is not backing down, I have to go to Epheotus."
"No way." Arthur exclaimed. "I will talk to him about it, you are not going to another continent without me."
"Don't, I'll handle it." I assured him. "That's why I want to talk to you about something relating the Asuras."
"What are you going to do? I'm not letting you go." Arthur ignored the last thing I said.
"I'm sending a clone without him knowing, I didn't want to tell you, so that it looked good, but now you do." I was going to send a white core clone of myself there and stay hidden here until they got back.
"That will work for me." Arthur gave me a nod, then went on. "Go ahead, what about the Asuras?"
"No matter what I say, for now, they are our friends." I was going to tell him everything. "Arthur, in the novel, probably around this time, Kezess sends a unit to kill Agrona, and fails, this results in the treaty they had being broken, forcing them to sign a new one. In this one, they are no longer allowed to assist us in the war."
"What? Why would they do that?"
"Why do you think? Kezess and all of them don't think we can win, and hell, maybe we can't, but that is the point I am trying to make, the Asuras don't give a flying shit about us." Arthur was just examining me as I spoke. "After we lose Dicathen to Agrona, our good old pal Aldir, completely annihilates the Elven Kingdom, like mass genocide with one spell." Arthur was speechless, his mouth was wide open, and he was just staring at me. "The Asuras are also the people who killed the old mages, well, let me rephrase, the dragons killed the old mages, because they figured out a better way to use aether."
"Hold on a second, Veer, you just dropped a bomb on me, give me a second to understand this." Arthur gave it a long thought, then spoke again. "Aldir destroys the Elven Kingdom, Lord Indrath was the one who killed all the old mages, and we should not be trusting them?"
"That is all true, but we can trust them for now." I meant it, for now we could. "We have to, no one is strong enough here to even stand up against them yet. Arthur, in the novel, let's say this is far in the future, and something that should not happen if we win this war, Kezess decides that the future would be better off without any Dicatheons, so he sends an older Taci to wipe us out."
"Veer, just stop." Arthur waved his hands. "I don't need to know anymore, I understand, I always I had my assumptions, but now you answered all my questions." Arthur scratched his chin. "He tries to kill every citizen of Dicathen though?"
"Yeah, he actually kills a Lance." I said with a sorrowful tone, knowing who that Lance was.
"Aya, by the way you are speaking." I nodded my head slowly. "That won't happen, you don't have to worry, I know you care for her." Arthur knew how I felt for Aya, he could tell we were close when we went on the mission together.
"With everything, if I didn't know what I did about Agrona, I would team up with him." I chuckled slightly. "But to be honest, Epheotus should not be run by either of them, both are fucking crazy in their own ways."
"Watch your mouth." He grinned at me.
"Shut up." I shook my head and began to laugh. "Haha."
"You may be right though, knowing both of them, and hearing what you have to say about them as well, they seem more worried about power, than their people." He was absolutely right. "There is not much though that we could do to change that."
"I know." I stood up, getting a weird feeling. "For now, at least." The room fell silent, I felt a strange sense of blood currently coming from Arthur's room. "Do you feel that?"
"No?" Arthur asked questioningly, and I realized, he does not have blood powers. "What is it?"
"Oh my god." I faced the door and waved to him to follow me. "Let's go to your room, I think there is something there that is going to surprise you if I am right, and it will also surprise me, because it will be the first time, I get to see it."
"See what?" I opened the door as he spoke and nodded my head for him to come with me. The two of us made our way over to his room, and he walked in first, I followed behind him, and a smile crossed my face when the sight came into view. "S-Sylvie?"
Standing in front of the bathroom door, was a girl who looked a year or two younger than me, she had wheat colored hair that ran down to her shoulders but didn't cover most of her forehead. Sylvie was wearing a long black dress which resembled and looked like her scales when she was in her dragon form, and she had two long black horns jutting up from her head.
"Arthur, Veer." She spoke, and smiled brightly as she looked at us, her voice was normal, but it was a delight to hear while she was in her human form. "How do I look?"
"You, you have a human form?!" Arthur exclaimed, walking up to his bond, and examined the horns on her head. I walked up behind him, and watched the two exchange looks with one another. "You knew?!" Arthur spun and looked at me.
"Of course, Arthur." I said, stepping up next to him, and we faced Sylvie. "You look amazing, Sylvie, it's good to see you as a human, or an asura, or whatever." She smiled brightly as I looked at her, she looked good.
"Thanks." She responded. "Now, we can chat like normal people." That was what she cared about right now.
"But how did you unlock this form? Why did it just come now?" Arthur asked her, I knew the answer, it was Sylvia, she did it.
"My mother." Sylvie said as we stood in a triangle. "She placed a limiter on me that prevented me from taking this form, I needed to get strong enough to unlock." Sylvie's yellow eyes followed me as I sat down on Arthur's bed, listening.
"It was probably to hide you." Arthur was right, but it was pretty obvious. "This is going to change a few things, it's gonna surprise a lot, no, everyone."
"I know." Sylvie said, and then tossed the horn in her hands to Arthur. "It's done, there isn't any more mana left in it, and I don't need." She then turned to me. "It's thanks to you, Veer, with your blood magic, I was able to absorb mana so much faster."
I smiled at the dragon. "You're welcome, but it really wasn't anything." It wasn't that hard for me to do, and it didn't take up too much of my mana. "I'm just happy you finally have a human form."
She nodded her head. "Well, I'm going to go for a walk, if anyone cares to join me." I said as I stood up from the bed and faced the door. "You can test out your new legs, I bet walking on two is very different than four."
"Sure!" Sylvie exclaimed, walking quickly behind me. "Come on, Arthur."
"Fine." Arthur said, walking behind us as we exited the room. "Let's go see Ellie, she was on the balcony training by herself." I knew that, I sensed her earlier out there, so we turned down a hall, and the three of us made our way to see my twin sister.
I was walking to the right of Sylvie, Arthur was to her left, and as we strolled through the hall, we ended up not passing a single person, no guards, no other nobles, no one. As we got to the balcony, I could see Ellie shooting her bow, forming pure mana arrows, and hitting the target every time. Boo was in the corner, by himself, observing her, making sure nothing happened.
Hearing us step out onto the balcony, Ellie turned to face us, and her eyes immediately went to Sylvie. "Who is that?" She asked walking over to us, and then her eyes widened. "Is that? Sylvie?"
"Yeah!" Sylvie exclaimed, and the two stood face to face.
"Wow! Look at you, look at your horns! You are so adorable!" Ellie started to examine Sylvie from head to toe, touching the horns on her head as Arthur and I just watched, amused by her reaction.
"Ellie, stop." Sylvie said playfully as Ellie patted her head.
"Who knew you had a human form, that is crazy, and awesome!" She exclaimed and turned to us. "Doesn't she look amazing? Come on, Sylvie, let's train together!" Ellie, not caring about the answer to her question, grabbed Sylvie's arm, and pulled her away from us.
"Guess we aren't going for a walk." I giggled watching the two.
"We can, if you want?" Arthur asked, and I shrugged, leaving it up to him. "Come on." He started to walk away, and I followed behind him. "How are you feeling?"
"What? You know I was not injured; you took way more damage than me, and the battle was like four days ago." I waved his words away.
"No, not your injuries, your mental state." Arthur spoke, and I figured this was going to come up sooner or later. "Sylvie and I both sensed you losing it slightly, but not as bad as I thought, you seem reasonably okay."
"No, I am fine, I think had control, nothing bad really happened."
"Yeah, but didn't you say you enjoyed the battle, and killing, that's not normal, of course, you know, we had to do what we did, but we should not enjoy it." Arthur told me. "You are eleven, you might have lived twenty one years, but you are eleven, you don't know what it is like to be a teen, let alone an adult, and the things we are doing, the amount of people we are going to have to kill, and the pressure on us, it's stressful, so you know you can talk to me, your brother."
"I ain't stressed, but I know I can talk to you, and I know I shouldn't enjoy it, but it is hard not to anymore." I admitted. "And I know that is the serpent, but I can't change that anymore, Arthur, so we have to live with it."
He nodded his head. "As long as you stay my little brother, I don't care, just don't give up control, and stay sane."
"I'll try."