Year 79; End of the worm wars; Day 10

  Isaac basked in a state of utter bliss, every scale soaking up the warmth.

  What in all the world could possibly top this feeling?

  “I don't get it,” The elf next to him said. “It just hurts.”

  Isaac cracked one eye open and glanced over at Heart of Tree and Bark.

  The way the elf's mind worked left him utterly baffled.

  The elf man gazed straight into the sun, eyes wide and unblinking.

  Isaac could almost hear the sizzle of the elf’s eyes roasting in the sunlight.

  Isaac facepalmed, careful this time not to scratch himself with his claws like before.

  “No, no,” he said, meeting the elf’s bewildered gaze. “It’s not supposed to hurt. You just need to lie here.” Isaac gestured to the smooth, sunlit ground he’d conjured with magic. “Let the sun do the work.”

  Hart of Tree and Bark looked at the sun, the ground, and back at the sun again. “Aaa, so this is for training then... Yes?”

  Laughter echoed beside them.

  Spirit of Leaves and Wind was doubled over, howling with laughter at her companion’s dead-serious confusion.

  “No,” Isaac replied, ignoring the other elf, resisting the urge to facepalm with his claws.

  He was determined to teach his new friend the art of relaxation.

  It had become a real issue with most of the elves.

  They hadn't lived as elves for long. Actually, most of them had been sentient trees... but that was another can of worms— ‘that’s not a good expression to use anymore... is it?’ he mentally shook his head and looked back at the confused elf that had been there killing worms for more then half a century.

  The years he had lived after evolving Heart of Tree and Bark had been killing worms in the hundreds... daily. It would have been weird if he didn't have any symptoms of mental block after it, or just trauma.

  He needed to talk to Alda about...

  Still, Isaac saw a glimmer of hope in him.

  The elf man looked at Spirit of leaves and wind. It seemed that something came through to him.

  The elf of wind sprawled out in the clearing, laughter still bubbling as she relaxed in the sun, just like Isaac.

  At last, the elf man seemed to get it. He sat down, crossed his legs... and still gazed up at the sun.

  Isaac decided the elf was simply thick-skulled.

  ‘Just why,’ Isaac thought as he looked over at the literal force of nature.

  This felt just like that infamous conversation about the word ‘shit’ they had at the fest. Isaac groaned at the memory.

  Isaac began his explanation again. “Now close your eyes and just feel the warmth.” He did the same, letting the sun’s heat soak into his scales perfectly.

  He almost fell asleep there and then.

  The sitting elf had, for once, closed his eyes; however, he was still stiff as a plank, and Isaac could see that he was ready to stand up any second now.

  Clearly, he needed backup if his friend was ever going to learn to relax.

  “Spirit of Leaves and Wind,” Isaac called, “could you give your kin a massage? I—”

  He glanced at his claws. “—I don’t think I’m the best one for that.”

  “Massage?!” Both of them said at the same time, “What’s that?!”

  Yeah, this was going to be a long conversation.

  ——

  Year 79; End of the worm wars; Day 15

  Isaac reached the jungle’s heart, ready to meet Alda. It was supposed to be informal, but with someone who had once been a god, everything felt like a grand event.

  It hardly helped that he was a building-sized dragon.

  But this was his chance to finally talk with someone who truly understood the world’s mysteries. Until now, Isaac had been stumbling along on hunches and half-formed theories.

  Isaac gazed up at the building—a towering, living structure grown from one of the elven trees. If he remembered right, this one hadn’t received Alda’s gift, yet it was still awakened, pulsing with a steady current of mana.

  Isaac had noticed that, with the war over, the elves had thrown themselves into building and reinventing their lives.

  The building was all wood and bark, rooted in nature. Its thick canopy shielded everything beneath from sun and rain alike.

  From what he’d gathered, all the elves had to do was ask, and the tree would begin to grow.

  “What a way to flex his green thumb,” Isaac mused, just as a familiar presence entered the room.

  Isaac snapped back to the present as the former god strode into the hall.

  “Isaac of fire and scales,” Alda lowered her head in respect, and so did Isaac.

  “You wished to speak?” the god inquired, her eyes suggesting she already knew what Isaac would ask.

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  “I—” He hesitated, unsure how to phrase it.

  “I want to learn,” he said, “especially about magic and the... system, if that’s what it’s called.”

  The former god didn't have any visible reaction to the request, but she nodded in silence.

  She answered, “Yes... You do seem like the one who would have questions,” she said.

  “I have seen and know that you have great skill in magic already.” Her eye looked over him as she always did when they talked seriously. “Tell me what you have figured out... I am curious.”

  “ Well, where to start... ” Isaac was not surprised, but taken aback by Alda’s forwardness, but he answered.

  “Where to start?” he took a moment. “I do know that, when we kill something, we take something from the fallen,” Alda nodded as Isaac looked at her, “And that we also gain something from a skill.” Alda made a so-so gesture. But she let him continue, “From what I have seen, we have a power of our own skill in our souls.”

  “That is true in some parts.” The former goddess went into lecture mode.

  The elf made a sphere of mana and started drawing.

  “We live in a world,” where she made a small drawing of a dragon and an elf... ‘she is pretty good at drawing,’ Isaac noted.

  “Here, mana is the key to life—woven through all that we see. Even the ‘system’ you speak of is but another aspect of mana’s design.”

  She made more connections to the elf and dragon in the world, and even mana motes... and a system screen.

  “This means that the system is just Mana?” Isaac questioned... was it that simple?

  “Yes and no,” Alda replied, her voice gentle. “It is mana, yes, but also the sensations—the perceptions—that allow you to see the system’s screen. It is both, and yet neither entirely; it’s a blend of sentience and mana.”

  She continued, “A creature that has not grown enough will not be given choices when it evolves or ascends.”

  “But all who dwell in the presence of mana will grow, whether or not they see their strength made plain.”

  Isaac guessed that made sense... “But what about skills then, how or where do they get their power from?”

  “Now, here is where matters become more curious.” The former goddess continued to draw. “Each of us carries a soul—it is this soul that lets us shape mana in all its forms.” As she spoke, she shaped the motes of mana with careful, deliberate gestures.

  “And then, there is the world itself.” She drew a soul in the dragon and the elf, connecting them both to the world. “A soul is joined to the world at the moment of conception or spawn. That bond is ancient, and it shapes all things.”

  She went on, “Skills come to us as they are needed, or as the world itself deems fitting. Sometimes, they arrive at the moment of our greatest need, or as reward for some achievement.”

  “Your race and, yes, your class—” Classes?!” —both shape these gifts.” She paused, looking at Isaac questioningly, “Though I am not sure dragons are bound by such things.”

  Isaac nodded in a half-daze

  “However, what truly sets us apart from others is that we are able to make our own mana.” She added ambient mana to the dragon and the elf.

  “This sets us apart, in some ways...” She looked at him, her voice softening. “But you are rarer still.”

  Isaac looked back at her questioningly. “As we have spoken before,” she said quietly, “you are one in a million—perhaps rarer than that.”

  “Your mana is attuned to this world in a way I have never witnessed.” She steadied herself, searching for the right words. “Fire should at least be like breathing for you.”

  “What I am trying to say is this: you are becoming part of the world itself.” She hesitated, awe flickering in her eyes. “And, in time, your mana pool... I believe one day, the world’s ambient mana could become your own.”

  “Whaaat” was all Isaac managed at that.

  Alda, too, seemed to calm down as Isaac was still digesting what she had told him.

  “Still, I believe we might spend time exploring the more intricate theories of magic together,” she suggested gently. “And perhaps learn from one another, if you would like that.”

  “Yes, that we can... even some sparring,” Isaac added.

  “That, I believe, can be arranged,” she agreed.

  They settled into a comfortable silence. After a brief hesitation, Isaac asked what had been bothering him for the last few weeks, “How do you raise children... specifically, dragon children?

  Alda was stunned into silence at that.