I had a dream of something that felt as if it had happened a long time ago, in another life so to speak. I had just returned to my department from work, I was taking off my office clothes and getting my computer started, when suddenly I found myself standing in the middle of the ocean, with no land at sight whatsoever. My immediate reaction was, of course, to panic, but I soon came to realize I wasn’t sinking into the water. It wasn’t frozen or anything, I could still put my hands into it and pick up the liquid, but every step I took felt as if I was standing on firm ground. The sky was dark, but the moon and the stars lit everything around me pretty well. That’s why it was especially surprising when someone just appeared right in front of me, as if they had materialized out of thin air.

—Good morning —that person said with a big smile.

They looked pretty human, yet there was something odd about them. Their hair was quite long, almost reaching their ankles, and it had the color and shine of emeralds. Their pupils glimmered as if they were made of gold. Their clothes were what I can only describe as a simplistic robe, but it had some symbols on the shoulder that resembled the letters GBMT, but backwards. I couldn’t entirely discern if that person was a man or a woman.

—W-who are you? —I dared to ask— Whe-where am I?

—My name is Enki —they said—, and I have been assigned to protect and nurture this world. I took you from your world and brought you here, so excuse me for that, but I need to ask a favor from you…

Before I could hear or see anything else, I woke up once again, this time in my room as Rosanne. I tried to get up, but my body felt too stiff and heavy. At first, the last thing I could remember was going to my room after Violett’s birthday, and what I had seen in my dreams. But as I came to my senses, the memories of what had happened that night came back to me. I saw Iridia taking Violett away from me, I clenched my teeth and tried to force my body to move, as I felt my insides burning.

—I HAVE TO SAVE MY BABY! —I thought, and was the only thing I could think about at that moment.

Suddenly, something hit my forehead, barely a tap, but I felt as if I had hit my shin. My whole body shuddered and I lost any force I had managed to gather.

—Stay still —a familiar voice said in a commanding voice.

As I turned around, I found the doctor sitting at my side, looking as if he hadn’t sleep in a couple of days.

—B-but… Vio… —I managed to say.

—She is fine, look at your right.

I did as he said, and found out he wasn’t lying. My baby was right there, safe and sound, looking at me from her crib. I tried to get to her, buy my body didn’t react. Maxwell got up and walked towards Violett, reaching into her crib and carried her into my bed. She crawled next to me and put her head over my chest. I couldn’t be happier and more relieved; I started to feel tears rolling down from my eyes.

The Doctor waited until I had calmed down before helping me get a bit more upright. He also helped me to eat some kind of purée. I couldn’t smell or taste what it was, though. Come to think of, even my vision was a bit blurry, I could recognize Violett and the doctor, but everything else looked unfocused. Thankfully, this started to fade after a few minutes.

—Your vitals are… decent —Maxwell said, after checking me with the help of Sylphie—, however, your mana flow is completely messed up right now, even worse than after Violett’s birth. It was way worse when I found you, so, let’s hope it can return to normal with enough rest. Your body also suffered from… severe stress, so it might be hard for you to move for some time.

—I understand. Thanks for taking care of me.

—Don’t even mention it— he said, and looked as if deep in thought for a moment—. How… how are you feeling?

Huh? To think that THE Doctor Maxwell Conrad would ask me that was unbelievable. No, he wasn’t asking that as a Doctor, but as a friend…

—I’m… a bit dizzy, and confused. I… was stabbed, right? I don’t really feel pain, did you gave me anesthetics?

He denied it by swinging his head.

—That wound is probably healed by now. It was treated, albeit sloppily, even before I arrived—his face was telling me he wanted to say something more, but didn’t know how to.

—Can you tell me what happened? —I said—, from the start.

He looked at me with a serious expression and nodded.

—When we returned to the city after Violett’s birthday party, the Queen received news from her investigators. They had been unable to find any magic trace of the person that attacked you before, but thanks to your suggestion, they looked for fingerprints on the dart. They found one that didn’t belonged to the previous assailant, and they suspected it was from the one who had planned the attack on the first place. The investigators were able to locate the suspect using spatial magic and the fingerprint, but it took quite a lot of time and effort to make it work, so they only were able to do it the day before that.

—Oh…

The thought of using magic to locate someone from their fingerprint hadn’t crossed my mind at all. I wondered what other “modern idea” could be combined with this world’s innate magic to develop something new. I shook my head and tried to focus, as the Doctor was talking again.

—The investigators went to that place, a little town near the south border. They were undercover and tried to found some information about the suspect from the locals. He was apparently just a butcher, with a wife and a kid, paid his taxes properly, helped his neighbors, and went frequently to his church, nothing out of the ordinary. The investigators went to his house, but he wasn’t there. He was going to meet with some old friends at a nearby bar, but he had left by the time they arrived. They looked all over the town, but he was nowhere to be found. Without a clue about his whereabouts, the investigators came back to the capital to inform the Queen and try to use the spatial magic to find him again. It took them up until very late that night, but they found him… right in this house —he said, and took a moment to breathe—, the Queen came running to my house with a small army following her, and we got here as soon as we could. We found Adrian and every kelpie at the pier fast asleep, and even we were hit by a heavy tiredness, but the Queen was able to shield us from it. We found the suspect and his companions in the woods, and alongside them was one of your attendants, Iridia…

—Is she…?—I tried to ask, but couldn’t finish that sentence.

—She and the intruders were all alive… well, except the one we found inside of your room. Their skins had slight and moderate burns, depending on how much clothing they were wearing, but their biggest injuries were broken bones and impacted organs from when they were thrown from the second floor alongside with a chunk of the wall.

—T-the wall? —I said, not entirely understanding what he meant.

—Yes, but it had been fixed already, don’t worry. But I digress; they all have woken up, except for Iridia. Her injuries were more severe, and she was in a critical condition until very recently. At first we believed she had been helping you and got hurt doing so. After all, her fingerprints were on the dagger of the one assailant that was killed. But then we found a sleep rune under her bed, and that she recently went to the same place where the investigators had located the suspect the first time. So, was she…?

—Yes. She was working with them. They wanted to take Violett away for —I paused, my memories of that night were too muddled—… I don’t even know why.

—I figured that much, but with your confirmation, her trial will be more easily.

—I see… Wait, but then what happened? The last thing I remember is that they had Violett, I was hurt and couldn’t move at all, then…

I tried to remember, but all I could see was black.

—Who stopped them? —I murmured.

—Isn’t it obvious? —a new voice said, coming from someone standing next to the door of my room.

It was a woman, wearing clothes befitting an adventurer, like Anna and her family. I was sure I hadn’t seen her before, but her appearance was somewhat familiar. Was she there all the time since I woke up or she arrived just in time?

—Rosanne —the doctor said, with a bit of a downer tone—, allow me to present you the bodyguard I got for you, Alyssa Greenhood. She is quite a handful, but she WILL keep you safe from now on.

—Shush your mouth, son of man, the dragons are talking —she smugly said as she approached us.

—I-It’s nice to meet you, I am Rosanne Dragonroot. You must be the one that saved Violett, right?

—Nope, I just got here two nights ago.

—Mmm? Two nights? —I murmured.

Those words gave me the impression that more time had happened since that night, I didn’t had any idea of how long I had been unconscious. There were more pressing matters though.

—Then… who did it?

She pointed in my direction, and I instinctively looked behind, but there was only a wall there. There was no one else in the room either; my vision had cleared enough to be sure of that. Not even Violett was where she was pointing towards.

—W-wait, you wouldn’t mean… me, right?

—That’s exactly what I mean; you are a dragon after all. Beating that scum would be an easy task even for the weakest of us. And you are THE Dragonroot.

—No. No, no, no, no. I’m pathetically weak and without a trace of mana, there is no way I could have done that. And you keep talking as if I was an actual dragon, that’s just the name of my family.

Violett might be able to raise an army of dragons in the future, and my predecessors had some skills and powers vaguely related to dragons, but that’s entirely different from being an actual dragon.

—Pffft, Hahahahahahahahahahaha! —Alyssa burst into a hearty laugh—, p-please, tell me you are joking —she added between wheezing.

When she managed to calm down, and after taking a very deep look at my face, she became convinced that I wasn’t joking.

—By our mother, I have heard rumors about you, but I never expected you to be this ignorant —she said with a huge smile.

The Doctor threw a glare at her, but she was completely unfazed by it.

—Fine, let me explain it to you. We ARE dragons, this appearance is something we made to blend in with the humans. We all come from the first dragon, Lilith, much like how all humans are descendants of the first Eve. But you and your daughter are the latest in a line of first daughters of the previous generations, all the way to Lilith herself. That’s why you are the Dragonroot, you represent the root of all dragons.

—I am a dragon? T-that’s a bit hard to believe…

—Hmmm… I suppose I could jump through the window and transform into one, but that would just prove that I am a dragon. And I suspect that the Doctor here wouldn’t appreciate that, would he? —he said, getting closer to Maxwell—, so I guess it is time to show them to her.

—S-show me what?

The doctor looked unsure of what to do for a moment, but at the end he took out a handkerchief wrapped around something from his bag, and placed it in front of me.

—When I found you that night, you were lying in the floor, hugging Violett as if your life depended on it, and covered in blood. And you had these sprouting from your forehead…

He opened the improvised package and revealed something that at first I thought were crystals, but I came to realize they were horns. An image popped up in my head, I was seeing me but from out of my body. Those horns were indeed coming out of my forehead, and my eyes… they were so…

My head hurt and I couldn’t breathe, I was feeling as if I was sinking into myself. But then I felt a tiny hand touching my cheeks, and I was able to snap out of it. Violett was there, looking at me with a slightly angry expression, demanding my attention. I forced my arms to move, and I hugged her.