Despite having allowed Vissna to take several pieces of jewelry while in Bellator, she was not in a good mood. She prowled through the halls of Dragon’s Nest with a sour expression. The temperature of the entire building had dropped several degrees. Nobody wanted to confront her and I did not want her to randomly run across Charly before the fruit of life was digested so, I was the only one that could distract her.

I had only interacted with the dragon a few times since she took up residence on the floating island and it rarely ended well. At first, Vissna appeared to be fairly calm but her quick turns towards violence worried me. I had been lucky so far. Vissna had not known much about me and I was able to subdue her both incidents but next time I might not be so fortunate.

Taking a deep breath I approached the dragon, ready for anything. “Vissna, you are freezing everyone out of the building. What is wrong?”

“What is wrong is that this… thing keeps taunting me!” Vissna shouted as she threw her hands up in exasperation, “I have shown great restraint by not removing this parasitic remnant from the world and yet it keeps trying to pick a fight with me!”

I felt a headache forming as I looked towards the pulsing purple walls. “Mare, please stop antagonizing the dragon capable of killing us all.”

“If this cowardly lizard was brave enough to attack me, it would have done so already,” Mare’s disembodied voice said with bell-like laughter.

“You think I will not do it?” Vissna growled.

“I know you won’t,” Mare replied. The temperature in the room dropped further as ice started to form across the walls. I was forced to activate my domain to prevent from turning into an ice sculpture, myself. Mare, however, was not intimidated. “Stop pretending to be tough. I know more about dragons than you can possibly imagine and now that you have spent so much time within these walls, your ice means nothing to me.”

As Mare spoke, the ice on the walls began to melt and the room returned to its normal controlled temperature. Vissna took a step back in disbelief as the cold emanating from her body vanished.

“How did you… The Preateritum completed their research?”

“No, but I did,” Mare said smugly.

Vissna looked furious as scales started to appear across her skin. I took several steps back, worried that she might transform back into her giant form at any moment. “You killed real dragons just so they could pretend to be like us?”

Mare’s laughter echoed through the room. “Believe it or not, I had many friends among the dragons. They gave their blood willingly.”

“Lies!” Vissna roared.

“Regardless of whether you believe me or not, very few dragons escaped the hunt as you did. Those slain by the Preateritum were not able to return their life to the realms and will never be reborn. The balance has been broken. You cannot face what is coming by yourself. Only through the Adepts will there be any hope.”

Vissna’s anger faded and her face turned pale. “You created an Adept, a real one, not an imitation?”

“See for yourself. You are standing next to one right now.”

Vissna turned towards me with a conflicted expression. Her normal condescending attitude was nowhere to be seen. The scales that formed in her anger faded back into her skin. She walked towards me and knelt down to my eye level.

“Show me your fire, little phoenix,” she said softly.

I was not entirely sure why Vissna had such a sudden change in attitude after learning about Mare’s experiment but I had no reason to refuse. Fire ignited in my outstretched palm. Both green and blue flames twisted around each other, a hair’s breadth from touching.

Vissna stared at the small flame intently for almost a full minute before she had a sudden intake of breath. “It really is true.” Vissna straightened her back. Her eyes shifted to mine and I could see great sorrow in her gaze. “You are like a newborn, unaware of your gift. Are you the only one… the only Adept?”

I shook my head. “Mom and Donte are also Adepts. Dad and Charly went through the same process as well but Mare said they were incomplete.”

Vissna fell silent. I wanted to say something but she suddenly started crying. Tears streamed down the woman’s face and she smiled at me.

“Are… are you ok?” I asked hesitantly.

Vissna brushed the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand and she started laughing joyously. “Yes, yes, I am ok, better than ok in fact. This is a day I never thought I would see.”

“Is there some relation between dragons and Adepts?” I asked curiously.

Vissna reached out and placed her hand on my head. I instinctually wanted to flinch away but I resisted the urge and let her hand rest on my hair.

“Do you remember your first thought when you became an Adept?” She asked. Her eyes looked at me expectantly.

I nodded. “I felt as if I was fire given flesh.”

“And do you remember what I said a dragon was when we talked about my rebirth?”

“You said… You said a dragon was the elements given flesh.” I replied as my eyes went wide in realization, “Am I becoming a dragon?”

Vissna chuckled. “No, but also yes.”

“That does not explain anything,” I replied with a frown.

Vissna opened her mouth and then closed it as she struggled to find the right words. “An Adept is… special. They only appear naturally when a dragon or similar creature of the elements fails to revive and all that energy is instead diverted to a newborn. Those you call Preateritum saw this event once and spent the next thousand years attempting to recreate it. They hunted down my entire species for just that purpose. You are young now, just like that newborn. You do not understand what it means to be an Adept yet but in time you will. An adept is not just some being with an innate talent. They are the element themselves. In time, that element will grow and grow. When the end of your life comes, that element will return to the realms. Like a seed being planted, a great many miracles will grow from that concentrated element. Dragons are just one of the many possibilities that might one day come into being. With so few of us left, there is little hope that my race will survive on its own but through you… through you there is hope.”

I looked down at my hands in contemplation. “Is an Adept really such an amazing thing? Other than being able to control my fire better, I have not seen that much improvement.”

Vissna smiled at me. “That is because you do not yet understand your gift but I can teach you.”

“You are going to teach me?” I asked in surprise, “For free?”

Vissna chuckled. “Yes, for free. Like a dragon, an adept does not just draw strength from the limited pool of energy that resides inside their body but from the realm itself. That is what I can teach you and your family.”

“You are not just trying to fatten us up so that you can kill us and create more dragons, are you?” I asked skeptically.

Vissna coughed uncomfortably and shook her head. “Getting to the point where your death would create dragons will take hundreds or maybe even thousands of years. Acting against you now is not in my interest.”

“That was not a no,” I said as I raised an eyebrow.

“Do you want my help or not?” Vissna snapped.

“Sure,” I replied with a grin.

“Good, then gather the others. I will teach you what I can.”

A few minutes later, five of us stood in front of Vissna expectantly. I allowed Charly to join only after Mare reassured me that Vissna would not be able to sense the fruit in her human form. So long as Vissna did not learn of the fuit, I did not think she would turn against us anytime soon. An opportunity all of us to gain more strength was not something I could pass up in this situation. Once I was able to return to the Thirteen Divisions, even a dragon would not be a threat. Until then, I would use her as much as possible.

Vissna smiled at each of us, her expression full of hope I had not seen from her before today. “The five of you have been given a gift beyond your understanding. To fully understand this gift, however, you must first learn to connect with the realm. Unfortunately, none of you came by this gift naturally or you would already understand how to do this but I will do my best to help remedy this problem. Close your eyes and do not resist. I will let you feel what I feel.” Vissna paused as she glanced at me. “Please do not lead me to a guarded memory again. My head still hurts from the last time.”

I laughed and agreed. Vissna did not need to know I had no control over it or just how small of a memory was protected. I closed my eyes and a few moments later, the world slipped away.

It suddenly felt as if I was in a frozen tundra. No, I was the frozen tundra. The sky, the ground, the animals, I was all of it. It was a strange feeling unlike anything I had ever felt before but it was not bad. Instead, it was exhilarating. I felt the pressure of the ice as layer upon layer weighed down upon it. I felt the ice melt as the sun warmed its surface and i felt that water return to the sky. I did not understand all of what I was feeling but it was as if the entire world was just an extension of my own body.

Far too quickly, that feeling of oneness with the world faded away. It felt as if only a few seconds had passed but as sensation returned to my body, my muscles felt stiff and my bladder was full. I looked out a nearby window and saw it was dark outside. At least half a day had passed without me even feeling it.

Vissna looked exhausted as she slumped against a nearby wall. She pushed back the hair from her face as she calmed her breathing. Several seconds later she straightened up and her icy calm returned. “What you have just experienced is the end goal of what you can achieve. Memorize that feeling. My element does not align with any of yours but the concept is much the same. We are an extension of the realm. It breathes and lives through us. Do you understand?”

I had a great many questions still but I had some inkling of what I needed to do now. Everyone else replied similarly except my dad. After a moment, I realized he had not yet woken up. His eyes were still closed as he stood perfectly still in the center of the room. Worried, I reached over to shake him awake but before I could touch him, his domain pushed me back.

I stumbled backwards in surprise as Dad’s domain filled the room. It bared down on all of us without direction or control. Dad’s eyes were still closed and he was unresponsive to anything anyone said. A few seconds later, it started snowing inside the room.

Vissna’s eyes lit up in delight. “I take it back, one of you does align with my element. Do not bother him. Your father will wake up on his own soon enough. It is an incredible stroke of fortune. Despite not having an innate talent, he has found his element. He is becoming a full Adept.”

Everyone stepped back as the temperature in the room began to plummet. We all watched my dad expectantly but after thirty minutes there had still been no change in his condition. Snow continued to fall and pile up around Dad’s feet. Somewhat comically, he was starting to look like a living snowman.

“It might be several hours before he wakes,” Vissna said as she brushed away some of the snow that had fallen nearby, “We might as well get something to eat while we wait.”

Vissna walked over to the nearby crates in one of the connecting rooms. Most were alcohol from Bellator but in expectation of the dragon’s appetite, there were a few packed with rations as well. Vissna broke open one of the crates labeled meat, but rather than the expected jerky, a teenage girl tumbled out of the box.

With eyes wide as a started rabbit, Tia jumped to her feet. “Um… Hi?”