Chapter 19: The Cost of Ignorance
Early Morning - Mid Spring : Year 10 : Above The Nest | Home
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"Seven." Looking at the small voids in the projection within my head, I counted… "I see seven."
But it only made Mother's expression fall into a forced smile. "Ignoring your reserve, sweetie…"
"I.. am…" Finally looking away from the projection, my pupils thinned, vision sharpened, and attention moved up to Mom. "My reserve is the kind of.. bright.. area..? And the nodes are the darker spots, right?"
Her expression finally started collapsing after realizing I wasn't misunderstanding. "Y..Yeah…" No matter how impossible my words were. "W-W-Wait, you see seven of them?! Where are they?" Losing a bit of the warmth in her tone, her expression grew serious and calculative.
"Uh…" Looking back at the projection, my other senses blurred and my head rocked to the side like a keeling ship. "They're all toward the base of my neck in.. a circle..?"
About halfway between the reserve in my chest, and my breath gland, essentially at the back of my mouth, there was an almost artificially perfect ring of six nodes just inside the muscle, with one more almost perfectly at the center—practically touching my esophagus.
"W..What on Delphi…" Mother couldn't really believe it either.. and had she known just how perfectly they were distributed, that disbelief would have likely morphed into concern.
But thankfully, only I, the one who had no idea just how randomly placed attribute nodes were meant to be, could see them.
Because that extra worry would have pushed her over the edge. "Y..You must be misinterpreting one of them. Seven isn't possible, sweetie."
With just the details she knew, I was a genetic impossibility.
"The space mana attribute isn't something natural—it wouldn't even exist in theory if Bahamut's runes didn't still work." She was doing everything she could to try and explain it away. "Is one of the nodes different from the rest?"
But, in the end.. it wasn't a matter of genetics… "The one in the middle is a lot smaller than the rest."
I was an organic impossibility.
And simply neither of us knew it yet. "Hm.. it must be something else then… All attribute nodes should be the same size." Using her mana to crack the ground and pick up a spherical clump of rubble, she showed me. "They should be about this big, but could be a little bigger or smaller."
And I agreed. "Six are almost exactly that big. The one in the middle is more like…" Looking at my paw, I thinned and widened a gap between my claws before lifting them. "...about this big?" It was somewhere around a quarter the size—like a baseball within a ring of watermelons.
Which, given I was just shy of twenty meters tall, was practically nothing.
"Interesting… I wonder what it could be…" Tilting her head, Mother looked like she was trying to reason through the possibilities, but after considering several, mostly shrugged it off. "Well, if it changes size, or you feel discomfort around it, tell me immediately… Until then, I suppose we'll move on."
It was truly a saving grace, though…
Sometimes.. ignorance is truly bliss…
"Okay then.. going back to your attribute nodes," Looking to pass a chill down her spine as she spoke, she tried to steady herself. "I was going to try and pick a spell for you based on whatever attribute you had the best affinity, but.. I guess it can be anything."
Looking back up at her, my innocent curiosity started returning. "Is having six attribute nodes rare?"
She could barely hold in a scoff at the question though. "Exceedingly, sweetie… Six attribute nodes isn't unheard of, but there are only a handful in each generation… Any more than five would mark a generation to be recorded into history."
-Woah…- Though, little did we know, I was an insane specimen even among them...
"In any case, let's move on." Seemingly shifting the breeze as she turned, the distant noise of crashing waves and turbulent winds settled. "Let's learn what nodes are which attribute!"
Instantaneously purging all lingering, unnecessary thoughts, my drifting eyes snapped to attention.
"To start, let's grab some mana!" Tapping her paw against her chest, motioning me to do the same, she closed her eyes. "That image of the inside of your body.. find your reserve within it."
Quickly shifting my attention to it, the projected image in my head sharpened.
"Now, carefully, grab at the energy in it.. and pull it out."
Pausing, focusing on the little lingering ebbs and flows throughout my body, I tried to heighten the image of that bright area—my reserve—before instinctively grabbing it with a sense that was akin to my tail—an invisible limb of sorts. -Woah…-
Pulling it out, it was thick and almost stringy.. like a misty, but almost gum-like fluid. -It's kind of reminds me of like.. a liquid cotton candy…-
"Now, pull it up through one of your nodes, move it just outside your scales, and then spin it in the air really fast!"
Following her instructions a bit slowly, I took my time methodically moving the stringy stream through one of the outer nodes, feeling it almost change shape in my grip before pulling it outside and… *wowowowWOOOSH*
With a vigorous swirl, flames ignited from nothing. "W-WOAH!" Like I was spinning flaming metal wool, sparks simply erupted.
And like a caveman discovering fire, I truly couldn't keep the gleam from my eyes. -H..how did I do that?!- I wanted to do it again. -That was so cool!! How does it work? How can I make it bigger?!-
But as questions raced, Mother slowed me down. "That means that is your fire attribute node! Now, take another clump of mana, and move it through another node to see what it is!"
And so we did, spending the next handful of hours moving my mana through each node, creating swirls of white light, clouds of moisture, balls of lightning, and even making metal and minerals rain from the air, we learned what each node was.
But while it was basically the first baby step, I was already digging deeper into it.
Pulling some mana out and weaving it through my earth mana node, I pulled it out, and swirled it again. *Wowowoooom*
But rather than merely moving it and observing the phenomenon with my eyes, I paid closer attention to the image it painted in my head—watching as mana collided with the harder particles in the air, 'sparked' and knocked them free from their bonds with water, and accumulating them into clumps.
They were practically dust, but the denser the material, the more strongly the mana appeared to affect it.
And the other attributes seemed to have similarly subjected affinities. Wind was best for manipulating gasses, water for fluids, fire for temperature, and lightning and light for electrons and photons respectively. -I.. think…- It was hard to tell what was happening with those at the time though.
Not that those assumptions made it any less fascinating.
Learning about the different attributes of mana simply made my mind run wild.
Had a bird landed on my head during that lesson, I wouldn't have even noticed… My mind was so full, I had completely tuned out my surroundings—dedicating every drop of thought for processing those projected images, and learning whatever I could deduce…
Perhaps ignoring the depth of the rabbit hole I was slipping into more than I should have…
Asking Mother questions as I went, she quickly explained 'breath' magic to me. They were simple spells, basically using your breath gland to build up pressure, before directing the 'explosion' at your target with your mouth.
However, that wasn't always a metaphorical explosion.
"Some dragons, like you, will use multiple attributes to actually create explosives in their breath gland—though, it is worth noting these spells come at the cost of speed, knowledge, and complexity. Some spells can take colossal volumes of mana, and yet do virtually the same thing as something a tenth the mana cost or mental strain."
It all came down to practice and experience, understanding what was most efficient with your nodes, and what simply worked best for you.
Everything had a different efficiency for each person, and it made a dragon's breath attack a seriously defining matter.
"You can really tell a lot about someone based on their go-to spell, so take some time to think of something fun! It likely won't be the spell you'll use for too long, but…" She shrugged curiously—wondering what I would come up with.
But with the scientific half of my mind burning with a childish wonder, I had no intention of doing something simple…
Even if that was the most ignorant mistake I could've made… -I.. wonder…-
Eventually figuring out I could roughly manufacture chemicals and elements by crudely squeezing atoms together with earth mana, I had an idea I never should have entertained.
While Mother recommended that I simply gather fire mana in my breath gland, build up the pressure, and shoot it out in one fiery burst.. I had other plans…
And after burning eighty percent of my reserve over the course of a day and a half.. I was ready. -This should be good…-
It was something I was all too familiar with from my work on Earth. -Uranium 235.-
It wasn't much—not even a kilogram—but making my way to the edge of the mountain, I wore a smile consumed by the arrogance of thinking I had harnessed a fire I didn't understand.
"Mother, please plug your ears!" Looking down toward the ocean, I glanced back like a giddy child. "Also please put a barrier around Ilios and plug his ears too! I'm not sure if this will even explode, but just in case."
"H..Huh..?" Her expression warped with concern. "W..what do you-"
At the time, I seriously somehow thought I was being cautious… -One kilogram should be safe. I'm almost certain it won't react.-
But I suppose it's only hindsight that's 20/20.
Looking over the ocean below, I returned my focus to the silvery metal in my breath gland, flooding it with fire and lightning mana before beginning to encapsulate it with earth mana that would act like a neutron reflector. *Woom*
Almost immediately, it started glowing and heating rapidly—but nothing I wasn't comfortable with. -Perfect.. then…-
Making sure nothing was down the mountainside, I opened my maw, widened the opening to my breath gland, dug my claws into the ground.. and squeezed the sphere of metal as hard as I could.. expecting nothing more than a violent pop…
Until…
*FLASH* The sunlight giving color to the world before me was instantaneously eclipsed—the blue of the ocean and sky vanishing into a sea of white as the tiniest water molecules in the air exploded into mist and… *WOOOOOM*
The shockwave came, and silence washed over everything. *CRRRRRACCKKKK* Feeling a bone-melting heat blow through my body, every muscle tensed, my head recoiled, and claws ripped through the rocky mountaintop like plows through clay.
Every drop of strength in my body went to keeping my head aimed down the mountain—straining through tearing muscles, fracturing bones, and boiling blood that made my senses fuzz.
Untill… *SzzzzzzZ* Feeling my senses returning from silence and darkness, my instinct eased its grip on my consciousness, and my eyes opened to find the sky before me on fire… *WOOOOOOOM*
Tidal waves of fire moved out across the ocean like tumbling surfs—a molten mountainside, and plumes of steam being left in its wake.
The noise of sizzling rock could be heard for kilometers.. the deep rumble of the fireball moving across the ocean carrying farther as the now-cloudless sky above struggled to shift from white to blue in the wake of a second sunrise.
I.. was fine.. but looking down to make sure I was still in one piece, found my paws submerged in molten rock, with the typically amethyst glow under my scales shining orange like overheated metal. -W..What the..?-
Using mana to look through my insides, I appeared fine… Some minor fractures, muscle tears, and internal bruising, but.. fine… I hardly even felt hot despite the heat radiating from me being hot enough to melt stone.
But that wasn't where my skin-crawling fear that followed came from. -W..What the FUCK WAS THAT YIELD?! H..HOW AM I ALIVE?!-
It wasn't even a kilogram—an amount of uranium that couldn't even go supercritical without extreme measures, and wouldn't even yield a kiloton of tnt on Earth.
Hell.. even a fraction of a kiloton…
And yet in front of me, the lip of the mountain was carved away with a molten rim, and kilometers of mountainside was left molten—flowing into the ocean like a stream of magma from a volcano.
"V..Vasilias..?" Mother was beyond pale. "A..are you o..okay..?" Her voice matching the quaking in the air itself as her quivering wing lifted off Ilios to show his stance shrunken and tail tucked.
She and Ilios appeared okay… Physically at least…
But… "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" With the boom of a voice up the mountainside behind us, my stance shrank and tail tucked.
*WO-WOOOOSH* Landing with a fervent slam, Father skid across the top of the mountain before rushing to Mother in a wash of panic.
"T..that was.. V..Vasilias's f..first breath spell..." Her voice quivered like she had just watched me die, only now beginning to settle after seeing that I was okay. "H..he used s..some kind of.. explosion magic..?"
Seeing her so horrified, my stomach twisted to the point of almost puking.. but in the same breath, an almost nostalgic.. euphoric feeling sank into my brain…
Though, I shook it off without a second thought. "I-I'M SORRY!" I screamed, wanting to run over and make sure they were alright, only for the heat radiating off my body to melt the solid rock under my first step. "AH!" -WHAT THE FUCK AM I MADE OF?!- It was impossible to not get lost in the panic. -WHAT THE FUCK WAS I THINKING?!-
I, by every ounce of remaining Earthly logic, should have been dead.. Mother and Ilios too…
As I stood there, radiation zipped out of me with a wash of heat so intense it could melt iron on contact, and yet somehow, I stood before my petrified Mother like a child knowing I had done something really.. really bad…
Father was the only one who was able to move.. looking at the molten lip I stood beside with wide eyes. "What in Bahamut's name…"
He was completely stunned, like Mother.. but his expression was.. different…
His nerves were shaking.. his tail was stilled.. and yet instead of horror, he.. Smiled…
Watching his wings raise off his side, his head lift, and his smile widen, he looked like a father watching his son catch his first fish.
A truly deep, fatherly pride that…
He couldn't show.
Quickly reigning himself in, he silenced his true thoughts, "A-Are you alright, Vasilias?" Seeing me basically engulfed in an invisible, light rippling flame, he found reservation in concern.
Though… "I.. think..?" I wasn't really sure myself. "I..I feel fine." Spreading my wings to look at them, the heat wave multiplied.
But Father didn't even react to it. "What the hell did you even do?" Looking down the mountain at the rising plume of smoke, ash, and steam over the ocean, questions ripped through him. "Are you Bahamut's incarnation or something?" He said it jokingly, but under his breath was an honest confusion. "With that kind of firepower…" His voice drifted with the superheated breeze.
And Mother was quick to take over. "Y..Your breath gland…" Finally getting a hold of herself, she stepped forward with steam rippling off her body like a comet approaching the sun. "How damaged is it..? It didn't rupture, did it?"
I was quick to shake my head.
"Oh, thank the heavens…" Her breath of relief came out with stress so thick it practically condensed in the air.
But as that steamy breath blew away, I felt a chill roll down my spine.. and like a child knowing the inevitable reprimand was coming, my posture shrank.
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