A Benevolent Evil Dragon

After giving Edith a much needed lesson in tempting fate, I finally do the most dragon thing I can: I count my coins. This doesn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things. It's not like I know how much mana a gram of gold produces every day, but it feels good nonetheless. With everything piled together I have nowhere near a hoard, but I can see the flow of mana, starting from the crystals, then flowing in and out of the gold, increasing in volume and density, then going through the silver and turning from a slightly murky color to a vibrant one, then ultimately seeping into the copper or the surrounding matter. It is beautiful and alive, like a mini model of a flowing river.

I shake myself away from the beauty of it all, focusing on the most important thing. I finally have a source of useful mana. That is to say, at least 90% of my innate mana generation is chaos mana, which honestly kinda sucks. The rest is whatever mana I need for my body to function, like meat, bone, mind, death, acid, whatever I need to actually run around, it's there. This ends up with me needing to pull apart my chaos mana to scrape any sort of use out of it, since I can't exactly use the body related mana types and death is too esoteric for me to mess with.

Chaos, ultimately, is a better modifier than foundation when it comes to magic. I can empower my body with it, my shield is great when my scales are dipped in chaos mana rather than any other aspect, but using it by itself has shown to be a gamble I can't rely on. Every time I used my stomach acid mixed with it, I got a super effective, if terrifyingly physics breaking kind of acid. When I mixed it with sound I got an orchestra of music pulled out of Ayrah's head, then a whole song contained in one rune, then a self sustaining feedback loop of screeching. Ultimately, it was all sound. That breath attack I did against the monster however, not only ate an absurd amount of chaos mana to even happen, but it dialed up the weirdness to eleven. Light turned liquid turned solid turned mush turned nothing.

Now however? I have water, earth, nature, air and death in decent quantities. Additionally, from the way gold seems to work, I am getting mostly those elements out of the metal too. Sure, I'm getting a bit of light and fire mana when I leave the coins under the sun, but my artificial mana generation seems keen on sticking to these elements. I just need to make sure I don't let my own mana seep into this loop of generation, or I'll end up with even more chaos. It would be great to be capable of isolating it behind a valve system, but for now I just need to be more conscious of my own power.

To test myself slightly, I focus on the mana around the pile. A thing I had yet to check, mostly because of how resource starved I was, was my draconic speech. I hadn't needed it when it came to killing most animals, and during the escape from the army I didn't have a moment to think straight, or the mana to even use it. Now? Brimming with power and having mana in the very air around me?

"VENDERVIR!"

The rune forms violently, the mana being ripped from the surroundings, from myself and from the pile, rushing into its shape, forming visible wind before the effect sticks and my thoughts are followed, a veritable rush of air crashing against the trees by the end of the clearing, breaking away their tops and branches, leaving them as naked pillars of wood before the magic fizzles out as my surprise overrides my control. Sadly that took a lot of surrounding mana, but it's clear that my magic's gotten pretty strong. Whatever organ allows me to control mana must have gotten roided up after my month long nap.

"That is… strong… Wish I could make those sounds. It'd make things much easier." Edith says as she plays with a pebble.

"Are they that hard? It's only a few simple syllables." Sure, I knew that my mind was merely approximating things but…

Edith threw her head back, opened her mouth as wide as it can go then let out a sound that's inhuman even by my standards. "GLRNGMGAISRNVST… Yeap, still hard."

"That cannot be the way it sounds… It actually is a pretty reasonable language! How could it ever be that… Ah… Mana. Let me guess when you are surrounded by magic you don't…"

"Hear its voice? Not really. I know things like you can, but… how do I say this… I feel the pull of mana. I feel it try to teach me something, but it's always just feelings. The only mana that I know humans can hear is chaos, and even that needs to be in large quantities… Yes, I can hear yours when you sleep and your control slips, but it's quiet enough to not drive me mad." Her words almost smack me over the head. I can see and hear mana, and it apparently pulls its weight more than just by making me see things when someone speaks in draconic. It makes draconic even sound like a language and not a jumbled grumbling. Fun.

"No wonder I couldn't even make sounds similar to Vernian back then… And drive you mad? That's a stretch." The distrusting look on Edith's face made me rethink that statement. "Alright then, tell me more. About everything that you can. You already knew about revenants, you already knew about the voice of mana and what it could do… My knowledge is limited to what has been told to me and what I guessed myself, so I may be wrong about many things. Educate me."

This was a long time coming, but the suns above were relentless in their movement. I needed to know more but we couldn't sit still another day. The heads were rotting after all, and we couldn't afford to keep them preserved with magic. So it was time to do this on the move. I stayed behind to refill my body as she started walking back to the wagon, then I followed after. With the horse now being on wagon duty I simply walked a bit away from the road, using my sound rune to communicate with Edith while all she needed to do was talk normally and I'd be able to hear her.

"So, one thing before I start, what's with your accuracy? You told me you kept missing the mercenaries yesterday, but now you are running and using your complex magic without issue? It's strange…" Concern was clear in her voice, which made me sigh.

"You're worried I'll miss and hurt you." She answered with silence, which really was plenty an answer. "The answer is complex. For the rock? I just suck. You're a damn human, throwing stuff well is one of the two or three evolutionary benefits you got. I simply don't have the ability to process projectile trajectory instinctively and If I want to be accurate I need to be very slow and in a very safe spot when shooting them. As for the sound one… I aimed right but she moved suddenly. Even now, with you being on the move, you are somewhat predictable. I've been around you a long time, I kind of know the way you shift and react. I didn't know how she'd react to the situation there."

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That somewhat calms her down by the sound of her heart, so we get back to the important part. Bestiary talk. Well, bestiary and some magic talk. Turns out, she doesn't know that much more than me, and at least in magic she mostly gives me human common sense rather than something too groundbreaking. For example….

"So, what's the deal with all that sorcerer and witch talk?" I ask like a fool.

"What isn't the deal with sorcerers and witches…?" Sighs the poor girl that has to deal with this foolishness. "Sorcerers are nobles born with the right to wield mana. They are closer to you, able to influence mana with a thought, but still needing to use a chant for a real spell when they're on the weaker side. Main difference between a witch and a sorcerer is the body. You know already that I am bad at magic if I don't use my arm, that's because mana changed my body to accommodate it. Once your body is changed like that, you are branded a witch. I basically sold a part of myself to be stronger than I deserve…"

"That's stupid." I do feel the seriousness she tries to convey, but I can't stop my outburst. "And it's wrong. I've yet to see a sorcerer that hasn't had their body changed by mana."

As I pass by a bush I see her look my way, frowning, before sighing again. "What? What do you mean? You've seen the nobles that attacked us. They were all perfectly human. I have my hand, granny Yvonne had the branches, Ayrah… Well, she's a bit of a different case, but still tends towards being a witch. Even Alek had his cold body, and he was an extremely talented boy that would have been a sorcerer if only he was born to a noble."

"What about the eyes and hair? I've seen mundane people and they all have normal colors. The soldier yesterday was the first human I've seen with naturally blonde hair! Tell me, then, how that doesn't make everyone a witch?" Once again, my words confuse her, but it seems that this is some common knowledge I lacked.

"That's what happens to everyone, though? The color of hair and eyes is just the natural mark of being able to wield magic. Once a part or the whole body changes in a strange, inhuman way, that's when one becomes a witch. Lady Meredith was a great example. She was a sorceress, but when she pushed herself, her blood became poisonous. That kind of change."

"...So that duke guy was a witch then?"

Once again she frowns, shaking her head like she's talking to a moron, but then she thinks a bit.

"Alright, why do you think he would be?"

"His heart was slow. I heard it beat three times the entire time he was close. His body radiated heat, his skin was smoother than polished glass… Really, in my eyes he did not look like a human anymore. And you told me that that guy has been around for what, a century? While looking like he's in his 50's? It looked like his hair was on fire too, and he had no problem with it."

That actually gives her pause. It makes sense, she'd have no way to hear his heartbeat or distinguish the heat caused by mana from the heat caused by his body, but I could. It looked like she had a sudden realization.

"Bastards! Is the distinction a lie, then? If it's inevitable… Wait, even lady Meredith said that her noble status was built on a shaky foundation. And she did kill her husband… did they just brand her because of that? She said it was the glow of her eyes that gave her away, but now that I think on it, the wind girl's eyes glowed a bit when she almost attacked me… Did they just call Meredith a witch to not taint the name of sorcerers?"

I laugh, something that she hears without me even needing to use magic. She gets it. Good. In a way I am lucky that she doesn't seem to have much faith in anything, really. Dealing with a zealous comrade while being heresy on six legs would have been pretty annoying.

"There might be more to it, but yeah, that does sound like something nobles and priests would do, based on my experience."

"Heart… You were born a year ago. You have met a handful of nobles and priests, at best."

I don't say anything in reply, but more and more I feel the implication. Still, I wait. I wait because it's easier to deal with this when she asks herself, rather than drop another bomb on her.

"Still, good to know. And it would be good to keep up the appearance of a sorceress, right? I'm guessing only skilled sorcerers or ones that know that mana sensing spell would be able to tell?"

"Yes… I will have to be careful but yes, only those would be able to tell. Either way, where was I… right, we should talk about the monsters…"

Thankfully, the town has a lot of wheat planted around it. Perks of the mill, I guess. Since it's still mid to late summer, the wheat is tall enough for me to hide in. It'll be a while before harvest season by the smell of it. All the better, I am kind of afraid for Edith. Those mercs tried to murder her… who knows how this town would react?

Either way, she rolls on by with me in her ear, ready to help calm her down if need be. Hell, I already told her I'll crush anyone that attacks her and we can run after that. Who cares that rumors of a big monster start up, I'll use my sound rune to spread chaos and scream witchbeast all over, that should confuse people into not realizing I was actually a dragon. Hopefully.

I shake my head and look on as she is stopped by a couple soldiers. Place is in pretty high alert with how many men with pointy sticks are walking around the perimeter. It's clear they don't even have a wall, so this might be needed. One of the men starts speaking the local tongue, only to be stopped by Edith asking if he speaks imperial. That makes the man frown all the more, looking at the ruined wagon.

"What did you do with Pawel, lady?" He seemed angry as he spoke, but restrained himself. Ah, shit.

"Psst, I think he knew the family…" I whisper, causing Edith's face to sour. Rather than answer, she reaches for the sack, which makes the man tighten his hand around the spear. He almost points it at her as she takes out a head from the bag, but then he freezes.

"Sorry… This man and his band killed them. I avenged them, but there was no one to be saved." Her genuine sadness makes the man eventually nod.

"Yeah… Fuck… Told the cheap bastard to hire a merc or two… damnit… Come with me. Need you to give a full report to the captain and the baron. These bastards have been tormenting us for a long time. I hope you understand our need to be thorough."

"Yes, sir. I also have the head of the vengeful songstress, and guarantee that the three women it killed won't turn too."

That actually gives the man pause and he looks Edith over again. "Apologies for the rough welcome, my lady. We thank you for your aid and I am certain the lord will want to talk to you."

I bite my lip, a bit uncertain. I sure hope we got enough good will for the man to not mess with Edith, because I just realized… nobles are, more often than not, sorcerers…