My head bobbed in time with my happiness, independent of my conscious control. The Coreless continued to jabber away at me as I waited for the reservoirs within my scales to fill themselves again. This time, it felt far slower.

It wasn’t, I was sure. But I was eager to try again. I was eager to fulfill the Great Core’s expectations of me.

While I waited, I passed the time by looking around. We had traveled further than I otherwise would have, if I were on my own. The Coreless were not able to take paths through the wall-cracks and small-tunnels like I was, but their giant legs could carry them in a straight line far faster than my own slithers could manage.

The click-clacks of the Flame Formicans were falling further behind; I could still hear them faintly, bouncing against the walls of the tunnel, a constant warning that danger was near. And yet, the sound was growing softer.

Distant.

It was enough to make me relax, at least a little. While I was eager to see what Blooded Trait the Great Core would reward me for defeating a few more of them, I was not eager to deal with many of them at once. No, I would need to act as the Great Core had intended when it created me. I would need to hide and ambush, striking quickly before disappearing into the wall-cracks.

That meant that I needed more defenseless targets, ones that found themselves alone. Isolated. Vulnerable.

I needed to be stealthy. That would be far easier once I managed to use [Illusion Spark] more reliably.

The heat had begun to die down, ever so slightly. Not enough that I was confident that I could survive without [Illusion Spark] to reduce its bite, but enough to slow the rate at which my scales could absorb it. I almost wanted to hiss at the Coreless, to urge them to turn back around. I was impatient, desperate to succeed in my given task. Desperate to master [Illusion Spark].

[Illusion Spark] was an example given to me by the Great Core, I knew. It was a lesson on how to achieve the potential that the thought-light had always revealed to me. Before, I had been entirely focused on receiving new gifts from the Great Core. In that way, I had increased my strength. Through the gift of [Illusion Spark], the Great Core had admonished me.

It had explained the errors of my ways. The path that I had slithered down before was a precarious one, like winding through a tiny wall-crack at the edge of a great chasm. One small slip, and I would find myself at the bottom again.

I would plunge into the darkness again.

I would be weak again.

And yet, if I learned to use [Illusion Spark] in the way that the Flame Wisps could, things would be different. Even if I died again, even if the Great Core returned me to the cavern of flame-water, I would be stronger than before.

Better than before.

Once more, I was amazed by the wisdom and power of my creator.

With that thought of praise, my reservoirs filled themselves again, suffusing my scales with the energy of light and heat. This time, I was more careful. I had already found the clue that I needed, in my moment of frustration. Now, I just needed to use it.

I started slow, mixing a minute amount of the energy that I knew was heat into a small degree of the light that I carried. A few moments later, I released it from my scales, careful to restrain the flow. I knew that, if [Illusion Spark] was going to be useful, I needed to be able to use it reliably even without the constant heat provided by the domain of the nearby Core.

My head twisted towards my side-scales, staring at the point of release that I had chosen. In the next moment, the few scales that I had chosen shifted, transforming from the glossy black that they had become to something else.

They turned red.

I hissed with glee, bobbing my head lightly. The female-who-was-not-Needle absentmindedly reached out at that, digging her fingers lightly into my head-scales. I had begun to grow a liking to the sensation, so I allowed it.

It felt like a proper congratulations for my success.

The female tried to hiss at me again. She was probably praising my genius, but who could tell for sure? She was really bad at communicating.

She was a rather dumb one, but I guess she was mine now.

I leaned into the press of her fingers, communicating to her in the one of the few ways that she seemed to understand. That, at least, worked. She pushed down a little harder, sending a shiver of delight down my scale-flesh.

It was a poor replacement for the soothing light of the Great Core, but it was better than nothing.

When I had my fill, I hissed and turned away. There were important things to focus on. The female tried to touch my head-scales again, but I bared my fangs at the attempt. She made a few noises at that, but eventually retreated.

She was learning.

Finally.

I turned my attention back towards [Illusion Spark]. Despite my success, I had a long way to go. The Flame Wisps, though they were the creation of a lesser Core and therefore far lesser than myself, naturally possessed [Illusion Spark]. That being the case, they probably used it naturally as well, just as I was naturally able to use my venom.

It just came instinctively.

It would be different for me. Harder. I needed far more practice.

I don’t know how long it took, time blurring out of focus as I concentrated on the color of my side-scales. Each time, they took a different hue - sometimes red, sometimes green, sometimes blue. Sometimes something different entirely. Every so often, I accepted the female Coreless’ congratulatory scratches. More often than that, I hissed at her until she left me alone.

Eventually, I tried something more difficult. Copying the colors of the mana-infused ore-flesh upon which I was twined.

I took only a few moments to take in its colors before I started.

It was a challenging process, adjusting my scale-flesh to exactly match the colors that I saw. In comparison, changing the colors themselves was easy. There was no end result that I wanted; I just changed the amount of energy used until a new color came out.

I didn’t need to know how much energy to use unless I had a specific goal in mind, as I did now.

Controlling that aspect was like engorging myself in mana-water again. Not in the pain that it gave me, as there was none, but in the way that I felt like I was drowning. Out of my depth. Overwhelmed.

I lost myself in the sea of light that coruscated upon my scales, searching for the colors that I needed. I added heat. I pulled it away. Again and again, my scales shifted shades, until I finally found the silvery gleam of gray that I was looking for.

But that wasn’t all I needed to do.

The female Coreless’ ore-flesh glowed faintly with mana-light. I needed to fake that too, if I was going to blend in. As I was, I was still easily visible - the sole spot that was the color of pure ore-flesh.

Creating the mana-glow made what had come before feel easy. It wasn’t as simple as pure color. Mana had a way of spilling from where it rested; it suffused the air around it in tides of light, moving in and out like my own breath. In a way, it felt alive.

Slowly, a tinge of brilliant blue set itself into the heart of my scales. It didn’t overpower the gray that I had already created. Instead, it appeared alongside it, as if it had only been added afterwards.

The blue moved slowly outwards from my scales, spilling into the air in a pale imitation of mana-glow.

That imitation soon grew stronger.

And then, it clicked.

“Alright, what the fuck is going on with the snake?” The male Coreless made a few noises of praise at my success.

I hissed in happiness, bobbing my head again.