The System stirred, as if wanting to be a part of whatever was happening to Zery. Our dragon felt it too, as the magic gathered around her and lingered, not dissipating into a transformation as had happened with the others.
"What is happening?" she asked, panicking.
Gone was her facade of bravery and what she liked to think of as draconic pride, which was nothing more than just a mask she wore only loosely, representing an ideal she wanted to emulate. What we got to see was her raw, unfiltered form, emotions bubbling to the surface, wounds from long forgotten trauma oozing dark blood in her mind.
Even though she was glowing, I took her hand. I was here. The others were here. We were all here.
"For you, Zery. Always."
She calmed down a little, and let the process unfold while squeezing my hand like it was her only lifeline. Through me, she was holding all of us as the process changed her, new knowledge was written into her mind, and her body slowly shrank.
You stand at the edge of change, Zerynthia Nightguard.
"That is not my name," she said forcefully, almost screaming. "Sol gave me another name. I am Zery!"
Her voice sent a shockwave through the cave, kicking up dust and upsetting the mountain of detritus under which lay the core we were seeking to power the System.
So be it.
The System declared.
Change is inevitable. Will you embrace it?
"I…" she hesitated.
The message window did not blink nor falter. Our mana pool was being drained slowly, but there was more than enough energy to sustain the process for a while. Perhaps it was the System's way of telling us that there was no hurry, for once granting us the mercy of not forcing a choice in the worst possible moment with barely enough time to think.
I looked at Calla while thinking abuot this. She nodded in acknowledgment that she had been forced into this, into change and transformation, into the bond and all that it entailed. She was not given the luxury of time and reflection.
A faint thought touched my mind. Calla's. She was grateful, in hindsight. Back then, when it was still happening, it was a whirlwind of confusion and a mess of emotions. But now, in hindsight? She was grateful for all that happened. Had she been given time to think, she would have lost herself in overthinking, spiraling down strange paths, doubt and second-guessing.
"What I saw when you asked me to join the bond," she said softly. "It told me everything I needed to know. It told me that you could love me, and that I could love you. That the fate of the System or your bond hung in the balance did not even factor in my mind, not at that moment."
"Selfish little dryad," Vespera commented, but not without a big smile on her face. "Good girl."
I looked at Zery. She was much more relaxed now, letting the process change her in ways that felt alien but also so very familiar.
"I'll embrace change," she said. "Because I am not alone, and change is not scary when you have a family."
The light exploded, and in the following darkness lit only by Elyra's wings, we saw a new person emerge from the cocoon of magic that had surrounded her. Or rather, she was still her, but the changes…
She was human. Still tall, but now a normal kind of tall that was only nearing 1.90 meters, ten centimeters taller than me. Her hair was dark, with only the slightest hint of blue highlights here and there. Her eyes were sapphires, though, ringed with gold where the iris gave way to a wide, round pupil.
Her whole body was toned under the conservative clothes of a sharp, powerful, bright woman who was used to being in control. I wouldn't have trouble picturing her as the CEO of a billion-dollar company in some cheesy neuro-stim drama movie, but unlike them, she had an aura that bore and buoyed the image of presence she projected. That gave it depth. Like the abyss.
She was truly different.
She studied us for a moment with sharp, angular features. She was gorgeous, but in a dangerous sort of way, at least until her face melted into a warm smile that softened her lines, and her eyes sparkled with happiness.
"I know my path to power," she said. Even her voice was slightly different, befitting her new looks.
Which were temporary, I hoped.
Hearing my thoughts, she nodded. "It's more complicated than that," she said. Her accent, I mulled. I couldn't really place it, but it was different than her usual speech.
"Because I am now an aristocrat," she explained. "By dragon standards, at least. It's going to be interesting, adapting to this change in particular. As I was saying, I know my path now. It is called the Steps of Draconic Ascension. Even in my times, it was a path that had been forgotten, after the loathsome custom of consuming monster cores had taken root, spurned by the failing System."
She sat on a rock, somehow managing to do it with perfect grace and composure, not a speck of dust marring her businesswoman's clothes.
Yet, there was no denying her warm smile as she waited for us to take our seats near her.
"Is the trip to the abyss still on?" Vespera joked.
"It most certainly is," Zery said, before pausing. "This whole manner of speech is weird. I hope it will not affect me as much in dragon form. Speaking of. This is where the real change begins."
She looked at me for a long moment.
"It is also why I was hesitating. The Steps will alter my dragon form as I walk them, making it closer and closer to an actual dragon."
"Wait," Vespera interrupted. "As in, a dragon dragon? Twenty meters tall with claws as big as me?"
"Precisely," Zery said, then smirked. "Are you scared of becoming prey, little demon?"
The demon in question matched the dragon-turned-human's grin and licked her lips. "Eat me all up."
"I shall," Zery said sultrily.
While they joked about, I thought about the implications of what Zery was saying. "Was this what you were worried about?" I asked.
"How could I not be?" she replied, asking a question loaded with meaning. "Already, even though humanoid, my dragon form is still twice as big as any of you. Now the Steps will change it! How will we be able to hold hands, and kiss, and… have sex when I am a literal dragon?"
"We'll find a way," I said.
I heard giggles from behind. Sure we will, they seemed to say.
"I know," Zery argued. "But it will not be normal anymore. I was very much prepared not to grow in power at all. Better to be left behind power-wise than to lose the connection I have with you. The normality."
"Zery—" I began, but she shushed me.
"Let me finish. You see Sol, now this skill comes along, and it offers me an out. A way to be normal. I can be human. I do not have to abandon my dreams."
"Should you not… be happy?" Elyra asked timidly.
"I should! That's why it doesn't make sense! That's why I said it was stupid! I see now, though. I had accepted a fate, however limiting, but the skill shattered my little corner of safety. I had felt safe, in knowing I wasn't going to change. Now?"
Vespera put a hand on her shoulder. "We reject fate, sweetie."
"And as the System says," Calla added. "Change is inevitable."
"That we do," Zery said with a chuckle. "And I see it now."
I grabbed her hand, and she began to fidget and play with my fingers. "But you won't be alone," I said.
She sighed, squeezing me. "What if I end up using the human form all the time?"
I shrugged. "What of it? You can do whatever the fuck you want, Zery. But, if it's because you have trouble accepting your nature as a dragon, then we'll be here to help. Together. Bonded for life, remember?"
She smiled a little. "We never said we were bonded for life, my star."
I didn't care. "We are. We fucking are. Even without that ritual, we are already bonded for life. No more holding things back, okay?"
"That's right, dragon lady," Vespera said snappily. "No more hiding behind your scales or something like that. Wide open. Like the rest of us."
"I can do that," Zery said. "Thank you. All of you."
"Come here now," the demon grabbed her and pulled her up. She was tall, but no longer impossibly so. "Sol, Calla, Elyra, you too! Group hug!"