No Need for a Core?

Kazue was alone with a dragon egg. It was a daunting bit of reality in many ways, but not nearly as overwhelming as watching rock flow to form this chamber, and seeing it do the same to isolate Moriko and Bridgette. She had less to fear than the others, this portion of her spirit would flow back to her core if her body died and she had absolute faith that if some trace of corruption managed to follow her then Mordecai would take care of it.

That didn't mean there was nothing to fear. She certainly didn't want to experience that sort of death; drowning had been unpleasant enough and she had plenty to fear in the form of worry about Moriko and Bridgette. But fear wasn't going to be useful here, so she needed to meditate.

While her dream-touched, psychic magic didn't require much in the way of meditation to master, her spiritual magic did. Thankfully, her wife and husband had both insisted that she learn the basics, and Moriko had continued that training after her spiritual magic had awakened.

She settled herself next to the egg and closed her eyes to begin. First, she stilled the roil of her emotions, enforcing calmness as she separated out all the pieces of what she was feeling at that moment. Things like fear and resentment were not useful here, but they were acknowledged fully before being set aside to deal with later.

When she was ready, Kazue brought the egg into the circle of her awareness and what she allowed herself to think about as the ritual began. Mordecai had taught her how a standard familiar ritual worked, but this was more complicated. The more advanced the entity that was to become a familiar, the more complicated the ritual generally was. Their host was taking care of part of that for them, and almost all of it for Moriko.

Kazue wanted a friend to play with. That was the part of herself that she could best connect the idea of a familiar to; someone who would be by her side as she talked and played with her dungeon inhabitants, someone who could have fun bouncing on Klastoria or singing and dancing with the theater bunkins. A companion to sneak to the kitchen with her for a midnight snack, and who would conspire with her to play a prank on Mordecai or Moriko.

There were some places and activities where the friend would not be involved, but that was okay too. A friend was a separate person too, and her new friend should be able to make more friends of their own as well. Most of their lives would be shared together, but not all. That was the natural way of life.

All of these thoughts and feelings had been fed to the life that was just awakening in the egg, its mind starting to form immediately after consciousness. Few sapient beings formed minds that quickly, but that made these early moments even more critical. This is where most of their personality was developed. Now that connection began to feed back to Kazue, and it hurt.

Confusion and pain, need and hunger roiled inside the mind and body of the forming dragon. Kazue cried out as she shared that pain and leaned in to hug the egg tightly. She soothed the little one inside, cooing soft promises of how she would take care of it, she was here to take away the suffering. Kazue wanted her new friend to be happy and joyous, and she would do whatever it took to ease away the hurt. All she needed was for her new friend to trust her, and Kazue would gladly take this pain so that her friend didn't need to suffer. They were going to take this on together.

Time lost meaning as she sank into that mire of torment, but the terrible, primal needs inflicted by that living corruption could not take her. She stood firm against the torrent and drew the newborn soul to her, wrapping it in comfort and security as she helped guide the new mind into finding itself. Kazue's presence and the shape of her mind and desires were inevitably permanent influences on the forming personality, but she had to be in order to provide the anchor that the infected hatchling dragon could hold onto during these critical moments.

There was a sharp cracking sound, and soon after Kazue opened her eyes to greet the baby dragon tumbling out of the egg and into her lap. For a dragon, the creature was rather catlike in shape, complete with a covering of red fur that mostly hid her protective scales. But no cat had those wings, and the molten gold of this feline-like dragon's eyes was unmistakable.

"Oh, you are such a beautiful girl, yes you are," Kazue said with a light sing-song note in her voice as she stroked the newborn soothingly, "and red fur just like my own," though not an exact match, given that her new friend had stripes of alternating shades of red and red-orange. The baby dragon burped, eliciting a yelp from Kazue as she dodged the tiny fireball, followed by giggling. "Oh, I think I know what I want to call you. What do you think of Carnelian Flame? We can call you just Carnelian or Flame for short. Or maybe Cara? Neli? Anyway, my wife's given us a family name, so I guess that would make you Carnelian Flame Azeria. That's a nice majestic name, for a majestic girl like you." Kazue wasn't sure why she knew the dragon's gender, but she was certain that she was correct.

The dragon blinked up at her and then nodded uncertainly. "Yes? I think that is a good name, Mother?" she half said, half asked.

Kazue giggled happily. "Oh, that's sweet, but I am afraid not. Your mother is very sick, and your father is having to spend almost all of his energy taking care of her until she gets better. So he asked me to help take care of you. But don't worry, I am going to love you just as much as she would if she could be here, and I am going to take great care of you. We have a wonderful home waiting for you, and you will get to have lots and lots of friends to play with. Doesn't that sound fun?"

Carnelian Flame purred softly as she replied, "Yes, that does sound like a lot of fun, Mistress."

Oh dear. Kazue should have expected that. Hmm. "You can call me that if you want, but you can also just call me by my name, Kazue, or maybe 'Miss' if you want. Perhaps Lady? Well, we can work on it, I just want you to be happy. Come on, it's time to get ourselves together and meet two of your siblings, along with my wife and a friend of ours. You get to meet my husband when we get home."

This was when she noticed how much of a mess the process had left. Her 'kitten' might be twenty pounds, but there was at least twenty pounds more 'stuff' that was left behind, not including the shell. Kazue knew that the normal egg hatching didn't leave behind this much material and saw no reason that this wouldn't be true for dragons as well, so she was pretty certain that the dark sludge was a sacrificial offcast to eliminate the corrupted flesh. A few whispered spells got the worst of it off of her, and Carnelian settled onto her shoulders to watch.

Which was also how Kazue came to realize that her cat-like dragon had six legs for some reason. This also meant fifty percent more prickles and pokes while the young dragon learned claw control. Ow. They were going to have to work on that.

When they were let out into the main chamber, Moriko was already there with her new friend and Bridgette didn't take too much longer to arrive. Kazue shuddered with relief as that fear was put at ease.

Moriko's familiar was a long, sleek-bodied dragon with bright blue and yellow stripes, a whip-like tail, and two heads, one of them all blue and the other all yellow. She'd named the yellow one "Lightning" and the blue one "Thunder", and nicknamed them both "Sparks", for when she needed their attention fast, though the dragon had to speak for her to let them know. Appropriately for their names, Lightning could spit bolts of electricity and Thunder could use a sonic scream, though much like with Carnelian they both had a ways to go before they could be considered useful as attacks.

Bridgette's new friend was almost bird-like in appearance, covered as much in multi-colored feathers as he was in scales and with feather-covered wings, though he did still have four legs. Though his snout was long and slender, it was still clearly a mouth, not a beak, and was filled with tiny sharp teeth. Bridgette had named him "Fintan", which meant "White Fire". His breath weapon was white like phoenix fire but also carried the potency of dragon fire. That meant little for now, but the princess was going to have quite the terrifying guardian as her friend grew into his power.

Everyone had some of the sludge from this particular process clinging to them, but none of the women wanted to stay any longer than they needed to so they cleaned up minimally before grabbing their packs. They were all familiar enough with the corruptions by now to tell that the sludge was completely dead and merely gross instead of harmful.

The dream fragment manifested at the exit from the mound and said, "My children, I am glad you are safe and well, and I am sorry that your mother and I can not raise you. Moriko, Kazue, Bridgette, I ask that you keep these events mostly a secret, but also request that if you find others who are capable of and willing to take on this task that you help them find us."

Hmm. Kazue glanced at the other two and then back to the image of a silver-haired man. "We'll discuss that topic later, but if nothing else know that we will consider the welfare of your children first."

Their host bowed his head in acknowledgment and disappeared. The way out opened for them, and a flickering light led the way across the wasteland that had been filled with corruption just days before. Even now there was an occasional flash of silvery dragon fire.

During the trek out through the caves, Kazue contemplated the nature of this corruption. While it was a reasonable description of the end effect, it wasn't as malignant as the word made it sound. There was no ill intent associated with it, it was 'only' some basic instincts and needs becoming unbalanced and fueled by magic into something that could spread and infect other creatures. That it came from undoing some of Mordecai's work in how he crafted his calamity dragons was rather disturbing, and she was fairly certain that her core was digging for more details right now.

They made a camp in the valley outside of the dungeon, which gave their familiars some space to roam about and explore, both physically and mentally. Carnelian was the one who roamed the furthest and quickly proved to be an adept little hunter, though Kazue was quite happy to pass on sharing that little meal, all her previous ire at squirrels forgotten. Fintan didn't feel much need to explore in detail but he clearly enjoyed being able to practice flying, his wings stretched out wide as he glided in slow circles above the camp.

Sparks flitted back and forth from the camp, chasing after their sister. It was clear they wanted to explore more, but they also wanted to be close by in case their mistress needed their help translating her thoughts. For Kazue, the most amusing part about that was when Lightning and Thunder would bicker about the exact best way to express a thought whenever Moriko wasn't crystal clear about what exact words she wanted them to pass on for her. They made for adorable 'twin' brothers.

As for the dragon's identity, they seemed to switch back and forth between considering themselves a single entity and the two heads behaving independently. Kazue suspected that having two brains was a little like having a core and an avatar but without the same type of synchronization. She wondered if they counted as having one soul or two? Both options seemed complicated and confusing. Can you have one and a half souls? Probably not.

Their tent was very warm that night, with three baby dragons snuggling in as well, but Kazue was glad for the extra comfort. The past week had been physically and emotionally exhausting, and this was the safest she'd felt since the night they'd received their visitor. She did still wonder what his name was, but he probably wanted to avoid the possibility of being distracted by its use. It seemed likely to her that he was powerful enough to be responsive to the use of his name, even if he couldn't directly hear the person saying it.