The soil around me was completely covered by the small chunks that had once been a wyvern. It was impossible to recognize which part of the original body every separated portion was, not even the bones or claws, as in the short scuffle they had been broken in pieces so fine they had perfectly mixed with the torn pieces of flesh.

The only part which had remained somewhat intact was the skull, which I had kept in my hands after ripping it off the wyvern necks. After a bit of tugging it had cleanly come off, so I had not damaged it further. I was covered in its foul-smelling blood, but it wouldn’t be long before I would return clean. The body of the beast was already decaying, returning to its original state of black soot.

I took a few seconds to catch my breath and let the last parts of my body stabilise themselves. I healed rapidly, but the burning had been quite extensive. Moreover, it wasn’t a simple matter of closing a bleeding wound, but the reformation of an entire layer of skin, which was more energy intensive.

I turned around to address the guest who had appeared around while I was squabbling with the wyvern. It was a young-looking woman, with a well-kept blond bob cut. She donned a simple white dress without any kind of motive, nor did she wear any ornament, be it earrings or rings. Her expression was jovial, with a well-intending smile plastered on her face.

Her clear, almost grey eyes and platinum blonde hair reminded me of someone I already knew well, but it was their almost identical build and features which confirmed their kinship. I already knew archs blood was dominant, but the level of resemblance between the two was uncanny.

“... This is interesting. Are you perhaps the John my little one talks about?” Jonah’s mother asked.

Her voice was warm and her demeanour affable. I would have expected her to be wary of me, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

“I am,” I answered drily.

“I see you are similar to Tobias,” she commented, her smile slightly decreasing.

I continued to stare at her, waiting for her to give me a more in-depth explanation of what she meant.

“You are colder. Amina and I prefer to be more expressive,” she kindly clarified.

She was simply comparing two different behavioural paradigms of adult archs, which were respectively limiting or showing emotional displays. Tobias and I were more of the former, she and Matriarch Amina Sloan apparently belonged to the latter.

We continued to stare at each other for a few minutes, reciprocally studying the person in front of us. She was the first to open her mouth once again.

“I didn’t introduce myself. I am Mia, Jonah’s mother. I heard many things about you from my baby. Is it true you transitioned less than ten years ago?”

“It is true”

“Well, that’s something”

“Jonah told me”

“I’m not sure you truly understand how significant this is. You are younger than ten and yet stronger than me,” she brought a hand to her head and shook it. It seemed after studying each other for a while we had come to the same conclusion.

She presented herself as an amicable person, but she was still a mature archuman. She was different from others like her, as she had not adopted the role of Matriarch of her own Perimeter, but this didn’t mean she wasn’t one of the existences which stood at the top of this world. And she was admitting I was her superior.

Jonah’s mother clapped her hands together before opening her mouth.

“It’s been a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I will contact the others to organise an extraordinary board meeting”

I raised an eyebrow. I didn’t know what she was talking about.

“Oh, am I the first of us to come to know about your coming-of-age, young man? I was sure Tobias would have been the first, seeing how he almost fought Amina for you. Anyway, it’s quite simple, really: now and then, the adults meet up to take stock of the situation and choose what to do with the children,” she started explaining. She was about to continue but stopped and lost herself in thought. She seemed as if she was trying to find the right words to express the next concepts.

“And to take care of young adults,” I suddenly spoke out, something finally having clicked inside my mind.

“Yes, you are correct. The last time this happened was two hundred and forty-seven years ago. She was the type to run around and break things, so Tobias and Alexander took care of it. They may have killed her, I don’t know,” she candidly admitted. Although she had told me she was different from Tobias, she still had a similar level of honesty.

“But I doubt the same will happen with you. Tobias is quite supportive of you. The other two not so much”, she continued.

“And you? Are you hostile?” I inquired.

Her smile grew wider.

“We’ll see at the meeting,” she said, turning around and walking away.

I did the same and we left each other in a friendly and cordial atmosphere. Our verbal exchange may have provoked negative feelings in either one of us had we been normal humans or even children, but this wasn’t the case. We simply discussed facts, without showing any kind of impoliteness, and as such there was no need to harbour malcontent.

“Ah, let me give you a piece of advice! Eat something. I know how it feels when you come of age: suddenly, all physiological necessities disappear. But if you regularly get into scuffles and get wounded, you can go on only for so long without replenishing your body,” she added, before disappearing behind the walls of the Perimeter. It was her last form of courtesy before the final judgement that would come in the near future.

I had finished what I needed to do in this place. I looked around me to observe the fruits of my work and the side of my mouth slightly raised. Except for the annoyance of having my eyes damaged, I could affirm that my day had been amusing. I had confirmed once again that running around and exercising my body was one of the few things I still found to be enjoyable.

And so I left the Delta behind and looked to the future ahead.