No Need for a Core?

Recovery from their battle took a while, with their full physical recovery hindered by how deep they'd dug into their spirits. It not only diverted some of the energy that their bodies would use, but with that aspect of themselves so raw none of them wanted to use any magic or powers, not even healing prayers. It hurt like trying to make torn muscles lift something heavy, but worse. So instead they went through cycles of sleeping, eating, and digging deeper into their stock of recovery potions.

Once Moriko was feeling well enough to focus on transcribing, she passed on Mordecai's explanation of what had happened. [Mordecai made his calamity dragons hard to kill, and able to fuel healing by eating. This corruption is a mutation of that power. The smallest piece that can be alive, consumption, and replication run amok. He thinks a calamity dragon is sleeping somewhere beneath us.]

His explanation was more complicated than that, but Moriko didn't entirely understand what he meant by the smallest pieces of a creature having unrestricted multiplication and growth, and trying to understand it well enough to pass it on was beyond her right now. Kazue's core seemed much more interested in the lesson than Moriko was, but her avatar was just going to have to wait until they got back to the dungeon to learn all of that.

Kazue shivered. "There's one of his war dragons sleeping beneath us? I guess the person that brought us here is keeping the dragon asleep, but it's kind of scary."

Princess Bridgette was focused on a different part of the message, and frowned before asking, "How does that work? I don't get how the regeneration power leads to that thing that we fought."

"Oh!" Kazue said, "I think I have this one. Um, okay, imagine that a rock fell on a leaf of grass that had a bug on it. Both the leaf and the bug get squished, but they have this curse. So the bug bits and the grass bits are both trying to grow again, only they are all mixed together and the bug is dead even if its bits are not, so they are all growing wild and competing with each other, only the growth isn't directed properly. Take that, and multiply that by everything living in an area, and we get what we saw. There were nerves and brains, but nothing coherent or long-lasting enough to create a mind. It was just the consumption-driven bits of all the different things that used to be separate creatures and plants. That is why its spirit was so weak for such a big creature."

Huh. Moriko's little fox had learned more than Moriko had realized. She had seen how adorably earnest Kazue had been when focusing on Mordecai's lessons, but Moriko didn't do well with lectures. She preferred more physical teaching methods. In more ways than one, she thought to herself with a smirk. Moriko snapped herself out of that thought chain to focus back on the conversation at hand.

"So the whole thing about finding our identity was to keep these smallest living bits leashed to the needs of our bodies, instead of doing their own thing?" Bridgette asked.

Kazue nodded and replied, "Yeah, though that would only work for something like this. Sometimes the bits just break and do something like that," she paused in confusion before continuing, "but I don't remember exactly how I know that. Or why I don't know more."

Moriko wrote down, [Core?]

"That's annoying but probably right," Kazue said, "a core knows way too much minutia to cram everything into a brain. Usually. I suspect our husband dearest has some trick up to get around that."

"Not a lot more, I'm mostly experienced in refining the information I keep to be exactly what I need." Mordecai said, and Moriko shook her head at Kazue and then shrugged before holding her hand up in the 'little bit' gesture.

"Only a little bit?" Kazue asked and then mused, "I guess even he has his limitations."

"So," Bridgette said, "we're trapped in this cave, somewhere above the sleeping form of a powerful dragon suffering from corruption, and the dragon is being kept there by someone else who we think is also a dragon. What is our next plan."

"Rest and recuperation," a masculine voice cut in as the inner portion of the silvery dome around them flickered off. This gave them access to the rest of the mound that they had entered, but it looked to be little more than barren earth and stone. The image of the silver-haired man appeared in the center of that space. "You have done well, and I have hope that you will be strong enough to take on the task we can not do ourselves."

Moriko had to fight for a moment to separate her emotions from the surge of anger from her spouses and found the thread of outrage that was all her own. She wrangled it as she glared at the illusion before them, but was unable to speak her mind.

"You are an ass for not giving us better warning of what was waiting for us," Bridgette hissed at him.

The man inclined his head in acknowledgment. "Your complaint is legitimate, but we seek to fulfill a dream, and though we bear you no particular ill will, your safety comes second to us in pursuit of our selfish dream."

Kazue had been watching him with a peculiar expression and now tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. "Dream?" she asked softly, and then said, "Oh!" Kazue pointed at the image. "You aren't an illusion, you aren't real! I mean, there is a real you, but you aren't even him. You are a dream fragment!"

Moriko and Bridgette turned to stare at her incredulously, and Kazue blushed. "Er, my magic touches on that sort of thing already. He didn't feel right for just an illusion. Though I don't think 'we' means him and his real self."

"Correct," the man responded, "we both sleep beneath you while I work on slowly undoing the worst aspects of her biology without inflicting more suffering, and my complete self is not entirely aware of you. I have been creating a record of our interactions so that my conscious self will know what has happened when I eventually awaken again."

Mordecai's voice whispered into Moriko's mind, "Tread carefully. He has created or teleported physical objects while only existing as a limited dream fragment. Our shared dreams have involved drawing the entirety of our minds into the realm of dreams, this is merely a piece of his mind manifesting in the physical world while he sleeps."

That was rather terrifying. Moriko frowned and pointed at the illusionary man, then gestured at her companions and herself before shrugging with a curious expression.

"What do I want with you? Hmm, maybe for this stage it may be best to explain first to let you prepare yourselves. I hope to have you save some of our children, though it will come at great risk to yourselves. We have eggs that I have put into stasis and they are alive, but they have been touched by the corruption. The three of you may be able to save three of them, if you are willing to put your lives at further risk, and this risk comes with a potential benefit."

A few things were starting to make more sense. Moriko was beginning to suspect that draconic possessiveness could make them even more irrational about their offspring than most parents. That thought she aimed at Mordecai, mixed with affection as she metaphorically tweaked his nose. But their host had more to say.

"They do not have a strong enough sense of self to survive hatching. At least, not without a strong, personal bond," his face twisted into a sour expression as he continued, "such as a familiar's bond. You have proven strong enough to resist the corruption with little time to set yourself against it, and your sense of self should be even stronger than before. If you are willing, I would have each of you attempt to forge a bond with one of our children, which will cause their egg to hatch."

There was clear pain in his voice as he spoke softly, "If it works, they will still be changed by the experience. Your identities and affinities will influence them, and in many ways, they will be less than what they should have been. Still, as familiars, they would be more powerful than most, and they will be alive, and so long as they live, they can grow and become more. We will take that. The other option," he gestured toward the exit of the mount, where they had fought the corrupted flesh before, "is unacceptable."

"And if we fail?" Bridgette asked.

"You die." The calmness with which he spoke made Moriko shiver. It wasn't exactly a threat, not when they had the option to not even try, but she was fairly certain he wouldn't let anyone who failed survive when his offspring did not. Perhaps if this was more than a fragment of a personality it would be different, but this limited self was not going to be able to witness one of his offspring die because of someone else's failure without lashing out. Assuming the person attempting to make the bond survived the resulting corruption to begin with; it seemed quite likely that failing to overcome the corruption of the hatchling would kill them both anyway.

"That's not exactly fair you know," Kazue said quietly. She'd clearly understood his meaning as well. "If someone tries their best, already risking themselves to even try, they shouldn't have to face a death sentence if they manage to survive failing to begin with."

Their host closed his eyes. "I know. But I can not be fair in this. So do not try if you do not have the conviction." He shook his head and sighed before opening his eyes again. "I leave you to take your rest and recuperate - yes?"

Moriko had raised her hand to get his attention and now pointed at him with one hand and at the ground with the other. She then raised both index fingers up and brought them together with an eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Ah, a reasonable curiosity. I had previously eliminated two of Mordecai's creations, for neither of them had been responsive to any attempt at communication. She was able to respond, but she was not able to stop herself either and asked me to end her suffering. Her internal struggles slowed her down enough that I was able to force her down into the ground. She clearly was expecting death and was trying to not resist, but I did not want to snuff out a life that had shown such tenacity in fighting against her own violent urges. Thankfully, Mordecai had not thought to remove other aspects of biology in his drive to create war machines, and certain instincts could be suborned in order to help her submit long enough for my power to encase us in a barrier. Life proceeded as it often does. I was thankfully able to detect the beginnings of corruption before they could develop too far, and put our eggs in stasis. Time has passed, she is better but still far from where she should be, and now here we all are."

Well, that was a lot to take in and Mordecai had a bit he wanted to say to the three of them after this conversation was done, so Moriko simply gave a small bow of thanks.

He nodded back before saying, "Rest, heal, decide. If all of you decide to leave, I will escort you out. Otherwise, I will isolate those who decide to take on this risk and we will proceed." And with that, he was gone.

The next few days held some interesting discussions, including with the cores. Moriko was still limited to writing, it seemed she'd done too good a job at sealing her own wounds for Bridgette's healing flames to have much impact, even on her tongue, though there were signs that over sufficient time the muscle could be properly restored.

Kazue made a slightly forced joke about looking forward to making sure Moriko's tongue was fully functional and Moriko made an appropriately rude gesture in her direction. Kazue smirked and said, "Yes, that is the idea." Bridgette shook her head at them and moved the conversation on. Moriko gave Kazue a wink and a smile, she appreciated that her wife was trying to put on a brave face but she had also seen Kazue's stricken expression when she'd realized how badly Moriko had been injured.

The end result of the discussion was that they were going to go forward with the dragon's plan. While testing them the way he had was callous, it also reflected his drive to find the best options for his children, and none of them could entirely fault him for that. Most importantly, the lives of innocents were at stake. While the idea of having a dragon hatchling as a familiar was incredible, none of them cared enough about that factor.

They had even considered trying to undo the bond after rescuing the first set, but Mordecai had interjected when the idea was mentioned, "Don't even think about that. While some familiar binding rituals can be casual, this one is going to require commitment. You are going to need to put all of yourself into it. Also, I suspect that they need to maintain the bond for quite a while anyway. Even with draconic egos, their sense of self will still need time to develop and this corruption is probably rooted deeply."

Mordecai had previously expressed how much he did not want them taking this risk, but he also knew the decision was theirs to make, so he had not belabored the point once his thoughts had been expressed. Kazue's core wasn't incredibly thrilled with Moriko taking this risk either, but once the decision was made both cores had put all their effort into being supportive instead.

There wasn't a lot they could do beyond emotional support, but they were doing what they could. Once they were as ready as they could get, the three women packed up their gear to be ready. They didn't expect to be staying long after the bonds were made, and that was the only mindset they were allowing themselves right now.