29 Albus side, p1

"Plaustribus," A low sounding voice called his attention back from listening to the transmission. Albusflores von Plaustribus was in shock, not only his fiancee had betrayed the military moments ago she was also now pointing the weapons of her vessel towards them, even before Hadeans did.

Albusflores white hair possessed a faint glow and there was a horn on his forehead just below his hairline. He had ears like a horse, yet they were downcast and mixing in with his hair, his tail was long, stopping only above his ankles. His eyes were changing colors like opals under a light. As a mythical grade contra, a unicorn, in humanoid shape, he possessed a strong presence and despite his ethereal appearance, there wouldn't be anyone questioning his authority. His aura was overpowered only by the man sitting next to him.

"Yes, sir?" Albusflores looked back towards Admiral Florentine, differently to himself, Admiral was calm. He had a mature, alpha male appearance and black wolf ears and tail. The fact that Admiral, as an Aheal, could easily overpower a mythical grade contra, spoke of his centuries of relentless training. Admiral made a faint smile. "This ship won't hold long, escape."

What? There was no way a second in command could go before his superior does at a time like this. Even more surprising was the admiral's tone - it wasn't phrased like an order. There was something vulnerable in that smile. Admiral had ordered things before and Albusflores could speak back when he felt like it, but the way admiral had asked was hitting off Albusflores's pace completely. It felt like something he should not refuse.

Without waiting for a reply, the admiral got up, taking charge at a moment when despair had started to settle in. They were a battleship, but just a single one and everyone knew what kind of weaponry Hadeans were pointing at them. Their ship did not have strong enough defenses to withstand even a single blast. "Raise the shields! Set the ship on a collision course, evacuate right after!"

Albusflores let out a breath of relief. So all of them would be going. Admiral's order, though - Collision course with raised shields - what meaning did that have… No, it had meaning, if the ship was destroyed like that then there would be fireworks illuminating the sky and there would be no way it would escape surveillance regardless of what sort of interference Hadeans might put up. Rather than causing any damage to the other side it would merely be the flashiest way to go.

"What are you waiting for?" Admiral asked then, looking at Albusflores.

"Nothing, sir," Albusflores thought of the destination and broke the bracelet on his wrist - a teleportation artifact. He didn't feel happy to be the first to go, but there was probably a reason why Admiral insisted on it like this.

Yet something went wrong. The artifact spent all its energy, the course was right, but rather than landing in the royal training grounds, Albusflores stopped in midair above one of the uninhabited floating gardens. Something had dispersed the artifact's energy.

Before he could start falling, Albusflores shapeshifted into his origin form - a unicorn - his clothes dispersing and an earring forming on one of his ears, next to three others of the same kind. He formed aether footholds to reach land, jumping from one to another with grace only a unicorn could have.

When his hooves hit the land, Albsuflores shapeshifted again, his uniform reappearing. Just as he turned to look above - a bright blast filled the sky above and at the very same time more than half the crew materialized close to where he had before, their faces equally shocked about their location.

Admiral formed a huge aether platform in mid-air, big enough to give footing to all the remaining crew - a feat only very few could accomplish, and his expression didn't even make it seem like that was hard.

Albusflores aimed to help, but before he could act, Hadeans materialized just nearby, starting to shoot at them. Admiral formed shields using magic, crew members spread out - some using flight magic, others shapeshifting, some attempted to teleport but all that lead to was returning at the same spot in mid-air. Albusflores had not heard of interference magic or technology that would mess with teleportation magic like this, nor could he feel any abnormalities in aether flow. The fact that Hadeans were not magic users at all made it all even more frightening. To mess with magic in a way that had nothing to do with magic - Albus had never heard of it being possible, but here it was.

Seeing what others were doing Albusflorest could tell the plan. Most of them would run and hopefully, someone would get away and tell what they saw. The weapons these Hadeans had were overpowered, but there weren't that many of them. It was suicide to fight, running was a safer bet, yet that said, many stayed next to Admiral and shot at Hadeans.

Albusflores felt like he should have been there, next to Admiral, but he couldn't bear to go against Admiral's request. That sad smile flashed by his mind.

Floating gardens mostly had a water leak in their middle where one could easily get to the ground if they jumped in. He wasn't too far from the center, so Albusflores turned to run, activating the spell in his boots. His boots were an artifact infused with wind magic, giving him an ability to move a hundred steps distance while making one, it got unstable in mid-air, so he could only use them on land, but luckily this floating garden counted as one.

His heart was sinking as he ran - screams of his comrades and their presences extinguished one after another, till the same happened with admiral too. Damn. Even that person-- Albusflores felt his eyes blurring but bit down his emotions focusing on moving his legs. Admiral was someone Albusflores looked up to, someone he wanted to be like and perhaps he was more like an elder brother than his real siblings. He had been someone Albus could fight with, share a drink with and trust with his life, yet, in the end, Albusflores had not been able to say even a single 'thank you'.

Right when Albusflores saw the leak, or a circular waterfall going down, Albusflores stopped, feeling a familiar presence in front, blocking his way.

The smiling face of his fiancee greeted him. Glacies von Campisnivalis. She was a little bit shorter than him, but being a unicorn, her traits were the same - glowing hair, a horn and eyes that shifted in color. Yet her eyes were cold and there was dark joy dancing in them not fitting with her light appearance.

All doubts about her being forced into it or having no choice were erased from Albusflores' mind. She knew what she was doing and she didn't mind seeing him fall. If only she wasn't there, Admiral wouldn't be--

Every drop of pain Albus felt transformed into hatred, but he didn't have a chance to act on it. He was shot at from the side. By pure instinct, he dodged yet the shot grazed him and his arm was gone just like that, disintegrating into atoms. If Albusflores didn't have excellent aether control, then that graze would be enough to destroy all his body in a chain reaction. Blood gushed out of his wound and he kicked off the ground to run, barely evading the following shots.

Trees disintegrated one after another, as Albusflores tried to use them as shields and the attacks got more relentless as time went by. He was starting to lose hope when he noticed a white corpse plant - like skeleton fingers, white scaly stems rose up seeming almost inviting to a path only those longing for death would follow.

If he follows it, he will most likely die, if he doesn't - he will absolutely die. Albusflores chose to take the chance and took the plant's invite and a path of them formed leading down towards the more thickly overgrown spots. When Albusflores had reached the fifth corpse flower on the path, a shot grazed his leg destroying one of the enchanted boots that helped him move fast along with it.

Albusflores flinched from pain, but controlled his aether to block the flow to his leg, then caused an aether explosion behind his back to push himself forward. Albusflores was a healer and was thus very limited in offensive spells, the best he could do was cause aether to rampage. It had force, but the explosion was inefficient otherwise.

It hurt and his back burned. but the blast was enough to push him past the plant and right next to a red one. He used all the strength he had to push past it.

Like that, he was gone from the floating garden and into a smoke filled monochrome forest with tall, black pine trees reaching up into pitch black sky. The only light there was came from the smoke itself and stars above - dim, gray light.

This was the boundary, or the path of the lost ones. The place where gods came to die. But it was also a path that connected Ahea and Urea. Albusflores knew that there was no way Hadeans would follow him in and neither would Glacies. Only dragons and a few other beings could safely use this space for travel and even then, a small part of them ended up dying by following the flow of dying gods.

Soon he was surrounded by a sea of all kinds of strange and misshapen figures. He did his best to hide behind one of the tree trunks and started to use healing magic to gradually restore his missing limbs, consuming all his emergency rations while at it. Like his uniform, those were stored in another of his earrings. Since Albusflores no longer had both boots, he shapeshifted into a unicorn, he would be able to move faster in this shape.

Most of these dying gods had a Ureal origin, so Albusflores looked carefully where did they all come from and started running against the flow. He ran for around two hours till he happened upon a still open path and emerged into a living green forest.

The hard part would start now. Albus didn't stop running. He had never seen one in reality, but he knew a Snarghlah'ahd would appear to chase him and he also knew that… his chances of getting away alive were less than a percent. Snarghlah'ahd's had the exact opposite nature to a unicorn; there was nothing more capable of killing a unicorn than it. Albusflores had no spells that could cause even a scratch, even touching the beast would melt away his own body.

Albusuflores knew he was in a hopeless situation, but even so, he kept running till he could no longer think straight and his vision spun. He saw three humans on his path. One of them said something in Ureal language (which Albusflores could not understand), while another one, a girl, leaped towards him in a speed a human should not be capable of moving in. Albusflores was too tired to react. She passed him and a loud blast resounded from behind him, bringing a shockwave along with it, causing Albusflores to stumble and fall down.

Snarghlah'ahd's presence moved away and after three more similarly loud blasts, it's presence disappeared altogether. Albusflores tried to catch his breath, his lungs churned and limbs had no strength left in them. He had been saved, yet mind was too muddled to form a coherent thought.

The other two humans(?) approached - one was a tall male one could confuse for a light elf if not for his lack of the characteristic long ears and presence, the other was a person Albusflores couldn't exactly tell a gender to at first - but he or she had the sort of beauty that could tame unicorns in ancient times. The most dangerous kind of being. The kind, his ancestors had said, had led unicorns in Urea to perish and go extinct. Albusflores knew he should be most cautious, but he couldn't help but feel charmed and his muddled mind didn't help.

The two conversed for a while, then the elf-look-alike walked up to Albusflores, speaking in Aheal.

[We saved your life, now your life is his.] The blonde gestured towards the beauty that stayed behind. [Any questions?]

The girl who had destroyed the Snarghlah'ahd returned, standing next to the beauty as well.

Albusflores was halfway there towards passing out, but he still tried to make sense of things. How can a human speak Aheal--- And how could a human beat a Snarghlah'ahd? There was no way. ...Untrals? But those were rare and most either didn't stay in Ahea for long enough to learn the language or stayed for life and never returned to Urea. They were either heroes… no, there was no way a hero could hide his presence to this level… what sort of creatures were these three? Unicorns were the best when it came to reading aether flow, for them to trick his senses to this level… it was a first.

[What will happen to me?] Albusflores asked, starting to regain his ability to breathe without pain, even if his mind still wasn't working quite right.

[You will join us in protecting him,] the girl replied, as she looked towards the beautiful person.

Protect? So he wouldn't be killed? [A familiar contract?] Albusflores asked. He was tired all he wanted was to sleep, his head was spinning around. The betrayal, the need to let someone know, the need to save his life, all of those started to feel secondary to getting a bit of sleep. Just a minute of sleep.

[Yes. It is unicorn code of honor to return a life for a life, is it not?] The blonde asked with a smile.

That was true. Albusflores had no idea how this man knew, but he was right. And if he was to protect someone this beautiful, then perhaps that was not such a bad deal. It was a part of a unicorn's instinct to protect. He felt something was off, no, he knew something was completely off, but he was too tired to think it through. [I will return the favor] He said.

Albusflores shapeshifted into a humanoid form, this time wearing his casual outfit, as the military uniform had been ruined. His casual clothes didn't look the same as the stuff these three wore, but he wasn't in a state to care.

A magic circle spread under them. The speed and shape of the contract seal would have surprised Albus if he could think properly, but in this state he passed it over and took the outstretched hand of the beautiful human. He knew the pact was sealed by him taking in some blood from his to be master and knowing so, he bit into one of his fingers.

Albus expected a disgusting iron taste, but the blood tasted sweet like tree sap and he could feel his heartbeat pulsate and his form change.

No way-- his eyes were wide as his ears shortened, his horn pulled in and same with tail, his hair also lost its glow, turning plain white.

Dryad.

The beautiful person in front of him was a dryad. Had he been a light one, Albusflores could be proud, yet he wasn't. Albusflores could feel that this additional form he had gained was one that had both light and dark elements in it. He was contracted by a dark dryad and that was not something permitted to a unicorn.

Albusflores was in shock. He was speechless.

"It's time to move," his master said and this time Albusflores could understand his words. The unfamiliar sounds and sentence structure started to make sense just like that. Albus had heard that familiars inherited language comprehension, but he didn't imagine it was this quick.

The strong girl picked Albus up under her arm and reached out towards the beauty, the elf-look-alike took his master's other hand and Albus had no idea what happened after. He was overhelmed by the lights and shifting scenery and passed out for a while. Then he snapped out of it, then threw up, then passed out for a few more minutes.

He could somewhat tell that his dryad master was doing some sort of unfamiliar magic at each stop, and he could at least barely stand on their last trip. It was honestly embarrassing to be carried like a grain sack. But once they came to a stop, all the emotions flooded up - the fear he had felt, the uncertainty he felt now, the sense of duty towards Ahea, the desire to take revenge, the pain of losing his comrades, the gaping hole in his chest from Admiral passing away, he threw up and started weeping. The last grievance topping it all was that he could no longer face his family and that was what he said, before the strong girl kicked him to knock him out.

***

When Albusflores woke up next, he was no longer hurting and no one was around. Yet he had a vague sense of where his master was. He wasn't close, but not too far either. Albusflores closed his eyes to nap some more.

After a while Albusflores opened his eyes again, starting to ponder. He was still exhausted and overwhelmed, but sleeping more in an unfamiliar place seemed like asking for trouble.

What the heck was with the situation he was in right now? A dark dryad had contracted him, he needed to inform someone of Glacies and their plans and-- most surprising of all - he was alive. That was a miracle. Albusflores had walked through the boundary and survived to tell the tale, a feat no unicorn had ever accomplished.

His master went further away. Was it fine if he stayed here? Albusflores was in a daze. He looked around. This forest felt more lively than he was used to and Albusflores couldn't tell if that was something he felt due to becoming a dryad's familiar or was that due to this being Urea's forest. There was a sense of will in the forest here. It felt like it was whispering something, yet Albuflores could only catch a hint of the meaning.

'Live, Grow, Expand'. Figures.

Albus made a helpless smile to himself. A forest would be like that. A few pixies flew past, but they didn't notice him lying there. Odd, given how curious they usually were--

Albusflores could feel his master moving even further away, but the other two appeared nearby a while later. While he couldn't tell the location of these two by senses alone, he noticed the phenomenon of familiars under the same master - he felt an unexplainable sense of closeness towards those two which might even top the feelings he had towards family or friends he had had for decades. And made sense he would, a part of his soul was now with his master, right next to soul fragments of these two. They were connected and physically closer than possible otherwise.

The girl walked closer to Albusflores. "So, newb, there are a few things you need to know."

Albusflores didn't exactly like himself being called 'newb', but he could tell that the previous kick had been a punishment for something. It wasn't like military lacked people like the girl in front of him - speaking with her fists first, then explaining later. Admiral had been like that as well.

"First would be that it's a secret that our master is a dryad," The elf-look-alike said.

"So if you mention it like that again, I will gut you," the girl said.

Albusflores was confused. Secret? How could a dryad not reveal its nature, they were more peculiar than most things out there, one would need to be an idiot not to tell some-- no, right. He couldn't tell either. There was no presence. His master was a dryad who could pretend being a human… that made no sense and if someone had claimed that to him he wouldn't believe, but-- that was the reality in front of him.

"Dryads are purely aether formed normally, right?" the man asked.

Right. They should be. It was the first time Albusflores had met one and he wasn't quite thinking straight, so that detail had slipped past him.

"Our master has a living body and a human family. You could tell he's a part of human society." The blonde said.

That was surprising. Diplomatic negotiations with dryads were impossible because they were out of it and didn't (and couldn't) follow any societal rules or regulations - that was a regrettable point almost any superior of his had lamented at least a few times any time talks about Urea came up. There being dryads like his master could change the game for the better. Wasn't that a good thing?

Seeing Albusflores' expression the blonde made a slight smile and continued. "In Urea there are human organizations that brand dark dryads as threats to be killed. If you slip what he is to the wrong person his family might be used as hostages and he might be killed or taken captive for no other reason than being a dark dryad,"

Albusflores eyes widened. What--- That made no sense. Yet-- he was in Urea and there was no reason for the man in front of him to lie. It was senseless to target someone for an idiotic reason of that sort, but Urea had its own rules.

Shame and regret filled his heart. He was meant to protect his master-- his own life had been saved, but he had gone and put his master's life in risk due to his own emotions--

"Oh, and right, he might also be targeted by Terreans and Soleans if it becomes common knowledge. You can probably guess why?" the male continued.

Now fear was added on top of it. Family. Hostage. Dark dryad. Dark dryads could sniff out other dryads and end them-- "Those two would like Urea's barrier to go so they could invade," Albusflores replied, despair seeping in on top of his jumbled emotions and tired mind. Albusflores had been on countless skirmishes against Soleans and while they were not a threat to Ahea in general, they weren't weak either. A low development civilization like Urea's would perish overnight.

Both the male and the female nodded their heads.

Just how foolish had he been? Albusflores couldn't think straight-- Tears started to fill his eyes.

His master appeared nearby and Albusflores wanted to express how wrong he had been, but all that came out was a sobbing 'sowwy' and his arms failed to reach as his master sidestepped him. Albusflores faceplanted some moss instead.

Acting on emotion alone had never went well-- Albusflores pushed himself up, sniffled and tried to calm himself. He could apologize when not as overtaken with emotion. At best, after he had slept.

"What is going on?" His master asked, looking towards the other two.

"I said I would gut him if he tells anyone the same thing he did," the girl said.

Ah!! No. that was small stuff. "I-it-it's not that!" Albusflores tried to correct the misunderstanding. He was used to receiving kicks and threats like that in the military, well, before he reached his position that is, something of that level wouldn't make his emotions like this.

"I didn't know that-- hick-- an army of Soleans might come after master if--"

His master shivered at the word 'master'. "August. Not master."

"August," Albusflores repeated, spacing out for a moment as he committed the name into his memory. That was a beautiful name. Fitting. End of summer in Ureal language and 'esteemed' in Aheal. "If it gets out that you are a dark dryad. So I'm sorry about-- that." He really was. His master… no, no one deserved to be persecuted for a idiotic reason like that. He felt tears falling down his cheeks. It was embarrassing to be a crybaby, but he really was sorry and he was too tired to control his own emotions. The connection he felt to his master made it all seem like he had endangered his own family and that was unforgivable for a unicorn.

"Ceruleum cleaned up after you this time, but do be careful," August said, not appearing to be angry.

Albusflores nodded. Ceruleum… it was a male's name. So the elf look alike was named like that. The name was familiar, but Albus doubted this male had anything to do with THAT Ceruleum.

"What is your name?" August asked.

"Albusflores von Palustribus," he introduced. He was proud of his name and a trace of that showed.

"I'll call you Albus then," August said.

Albusflores' chest constrained in an odd way, like something deep within him was being shifted. There were friends who shortened his name to Flores, Albus was a bit-- too lazy, many unicorn names included the word 'Albus' in them.

It looked like his name being shortened caused a chain reaction - the other two familiars also asked for their names to be shortened into 'Leum' and 'Veri' and it seemed like the bird on August's shoulder also had a nickname… Albus noticed the bird only then. Like his master it lacked presence.

"If it's like that for everyone," Albusflores mumbled, then it was fine. He might as well be 'Albus' if all of them got short names like that. What about surname, though... "Uhm, if I get it right, I'll be getting a surname from you?" Albusflores didn't know the surname of his master, so he couldn't assume that one.

Turned out, though, that he would need to use 'Albus from August's Garold's familia' to introduce himself, Urea's traditions made things oddly long.

Albusflores turned to look at the bird on August's shoulder. He didn't feel the same level of closeness to the bird, but-- that might also imply that there was a different form of contract between them? "Is that bird also a familiar?"

"I'm not," a girl's voice came from the bird, startling Albus. "I'm just haunting August."

Haunting? Albusflores wasn't that familiar with Ureal creatures to understand this bit completely.

"You mean dating," August corrected with a sigh.

Eh-- HOLD ON!! The rumors in Ahea about dark dryads were true-- they were depraved beyond anything. How could you date a bird--

"That's not her real form," Veri squinted at him.

"Oh," Albus felt his cheeks burning up.

The bird too dispersed to reveal the shape of a ghastly human girl. At the moment she left August's shoulder, she gained a presence. Albusflores could feel that this girl was half as bad as Snarghlah'ahd. A frightening being he wouldn't ever approach in the past. Her aether levels were a bit under his own, but her alignment was bad news for a unicorn. If he hadn't heard that she was dating his master, Albus would be running already.

To date someone this frightening looking and with an aura of death surrounding her… dark dryads were depraved after all. Albus would have thought of his master as less depraved if it truly would have been that he was dating a bird.

"Sorry, I don't think I know your name," Albusflores said, feeling intimidated, but his years of service helped him mask that emotion. One should never look afraid in front of a superior and if she was dating his master, then she certainly was in a superior position to him.

"I'm Mandy," she said.

"And your full name?" Albusflores asked, he didn't feel comfortable calling his superior using a nickname right away, or if she would insist, he'd rather at least know.

Yet that question seemed to put the girl on the spot and his master was amused. Albusflores wasn't sure what was going on, but the girl's name turned out to be Amanda Bookman, yet-- seeing her emotions towards it, it was clear that Albusflores should use 'Mandy' not to cause odd situations.

Albusflores figured he might as well ask what kind of beings the other two familiars were, he couldn't tell at all - there being no presence and much to his surprise… they were both bigshots. Although he didnt' end up showing as much surprise due to being shocked by Mandy. Red dragon of destruction - Riveria and Blue dragon of fate - Ceruleum. He really was THAT Ceruluem. To meet two of the top five Urea's forces like this… Albusflores was starstruck. This wasn't a weird dream or nightmare, right?

"...But there's no presence," he mumbled. They both should have a presence strong enough to make him kneel.

"It's not like you have any at the moment," Riveria said.

"I've never heard this happened if you contracted a dark dryad," Albusflores said. It's not like he was an expert on dryads and their contracts, but this was new and shocking.

"It's a particularity," Ceruleum said.

"Oh," Albusflores nodded. That actually made sense. August should have a legendary tier ability if he was able to completely mask himself being a dryad and nothing under that would be able to mask a dragon's presence. But didn't that also make August into a hero class being? Albus had never heard of dryads possessing legendary tier abilities, gaining those required way too much struggle and the strong seldom had to struggle like that, both dragons and dryads grew strong just by letting time pass by. The fact that his master had a legendary tier concealment ability wasn't a sign of an easy life.

Judging from this detail alone - protecting him would be more work than working for Ahea's military, wouldn't it?

Ahea's military would at least have the hint of the exploding spaceship and they had hundreds of capable people among their lines. Even without him telling anything, they would figure things out… Albus was certain of it.

But if he does for some reason pop up, not only would he bring utter shame to his family, he would also risk revealing what his master was and that would end up into an even bigger mess. Risking Urea being invaded by Soleans and Terreans was far worse for Ahea's stability than having a traitorous snake lurking around and maybe, just maybe, getting an abyss core on her sneaky hands if she does fulfill the Hadean request.

Trade between Ahea and Urea was important, if Urea was at war or taken over, then Ahea would lose its source of a lot of precious materials and also entertainment. Same how various Aheal fashion items and even creative property was sneaked into Urea, that was happening the other way around too. The economies of both dimensions were far more interlinked than one might suspect and as a part of military - Albusflores was aware of this much.

The best way he could serve Ahea was… in the end - abandoning this mission and focusing on the task he had right now. If he thought back on it, when August and Leum were conversing just when he came, it seemed like Leum was the one convincing August of taking him as a familiar. If the Dragon of fate did so, then it was fate that brought him here and he had to do his part.

While Albusflores was thinking and coming to a decision like that, August was being surprised about having a legendary tier ability and it turned out that Big Purple, leader of trade between Ahea and Urea, was also curious about what August was. It was impressive that even Big Purple has his eyes on his master.

Learning things like those with his tired mind made everything feel surreal. Events and people Albus didn't even think he had a hope of meeting in person were coming up one after another in that conversation. Just how he had met Ceruleum and Riveria, perhaps, just perhaps-- Albusflores eyes shined. "Tiamat's party-- I've heard so many tales! Will we be going?" This was almost a dream come true. Not a desire Albus would ever display in a normal state, but right now he was half delirious.

"If you all behave well," August said with a squint.

Albusflores felt a childish sort of joy in his chest completely unfitting his position and before he knew it he had joined hands with Riveria and twirling around. He was acting like a drunk, almost like a part of his mind had gone to sleep already. The only thing that shattered Albusflores' delirious joy was August saying 'It's time to move', he aimed to let go of Riveria's hands, but she made a mischievous smile at him and held on his hands more tightly. Oh no-- fae paths…

Albusflores closed his eyes shut this time and thanks to that, he didn't throw up when they stepped out. He made deep breaths and calmed his senses while August was tapping something on a small tablet in his hand.

August got out his suitcase, taking out a brush and ink. "Albus, come here and close your eyes," he said.

Albusflores did as asked, but something felt very odd when August spoke his nickname. It was almost as if something was being overwritten in his very soul, the feeling was stronger than the previous time. The name 'Albus' started feeling more like his name, his identification, than 'Albusflores von Plaustribus' was.

"It will tickle," August said, his fingers lifting Albus' chin.

Albus tried to stay in place, he didn't normally like anyone touching his face, but rather than feeling discomfort, he liked being this close. Was that related to being a familiar? Or was it because August had the sort of beauty that might have led unicorns into ruin? It really did tickle when August drew over his eyelids, but at the same time, he got a sense of meaning for the runes August wrote - he 'saw' pure blue sky of a summer morning in that rune. It was mysterious.

"Open your eyes," August said.

Albus opened his eyes meeting August's. "What was that?" He asked, feeling a bit regretful when August averted his eyes.

"You will see the same on Riveria," August said.

And Albus watched. The glimpse of a brown forest river passed Albus' eyes as he saw the rune over Riveria's eyelid. When Riveria opened her eyes, they were in that color. Same as August's eyes. So mysterious. He later asked - "What color are my eyes?" He was almost sure they were the same color as summer morning sky, but he wanted to confirm.

And Leum confirmed it.

Albus also asked what kind of magic this was and he wished he hadn't. It being written fae language was an interesting bit, but knowing that the ink contained cerberus claws creeped him out. Cerberuses stank-- really bad! Having dirty bits like those on his eyes felt disgusting.

Albus tried to not think much on it as he found a seat next to Riveria and listened to their conversation as he watched the passing scenery. Urea felt so… ancient and at the same time fantasy like. Peculiar technology. The clothing of people didn't surprise Albus much, though, there were towns in Ahea with a fashion similar to Urea since the trade was active and all. Only Ureals were clueless of it for the most part.

The conversation they were having made them all seem very close and comfortable with each other. Albus hadn't met any masters in Ahea having a relationship this casual and free with their familiars, but it warmed Albus' heart. He wanted to be this close too. Before he knew, he asked a question too, when August was pushing for Riveria and Ceruluem to make eggs.

"August, why are you trying to breed dragons?" Dragons were alpha predators and not very friendly, common sense was to discourage them making more, it was less violent that way. Dragons did kill each other for sport at times and they both incited and participated in wars for fun and looting like they had nothing better to do.

"Their count has dwindled in Urea, have to do my part in helping them raise their numbers," August said.

Albus' eyes widened. To think August cared for balance like that-- that said… Urea had no more unicorns, right? Could it be that he was fated to meet August to fix that? Albus knew that female dryads gave birth to elves regardless with whom they had children, but those elves had particular aptitude for using elementals with a matching aptitude to their other parent, but when it came to male dryads - they strenghtened whichever race the mother had, passing on a certain gift to their children.

Leum revealed his father was also a dryad and Riveria expressed she would happily have an egg with August and even Mandy agreed to it. Figures, depraved beings had depraved mates. Doing stuff like that in a group even, it was impressive how far dark dryad depravity went. Albus nodded a few times, confirming it to himself in his sleep-deprived delirium.

Albus was well aware what kind of relationships masters and their familiars ended up developing and remembering the sensation of those fingers on his chin… mhm, he had something to look forward to. There was no way Albus could be honest like that normally, especially not about things of this sort, but he wasn't in a normal state right now.

That was the point where Albus' sex started shifting. Unicorns were born with a random sex, but their sex could change when they picked a mate and that was exactly what was happening to Albus. His fiance had betrayed him and he was no longer Albusflores, perhaps he was fated to be reborn as Albus - the mother of Urea's future unicorns. Albus brushed the idea away as being silly, at least consciously, but his body didn't think it was silly. The change had started.

It was interesting just to look around, everything was new and exciting. Ahea's technology was way above the one found here, but that one was based on magic, but this one was like, if Albus had to guess, ancient Hadean one? Based on natural forces with no aether involved. So peculiar.

Albus found himself able to read Ureal language on the posters and screens around and noted down that there had been a natural disaster in some town. Thanks to divinations Aheals hadn't had any unexpected disasters of that sort for centuries already, in fact, they stopped and dissolved half the predicted ones as well. Urea had a long way to go.

They entered a certain bar and Albus felt the aether thicken in the air, magic users were nearby and while the decorations in the bar contained no magic in them, some of the customers were magic users and same with the waitresses. The aether kept thickening till they entered the guild and Albus looked around in wonder at all the people around, most were humans, but there were also some tamed lower rank contras, oh, a salamander as well, that's a mid-rank-- Albus startled a little spotting a familiar aether flow - an Aheal! And the very same Aheal in question had tried to jump towards August.

Albus followed them all into guild master's cabinet and sat down same as Veri and Leum. Judging from the seat the Aheal took - he was the guild master. And his aether readings spoke of a power level similar to Admiral's. There were a few concealment artifacts on him, but those wouldn't work against Albus's senses. Yet Albus didn't know this Aheal, which meant that he had nothing to do with Ahea's military, at least.

Following the other two, Albus also introduced himself and an automaton passed him some tea. He didn't think he would see an automaton in Urea, but since the owner was an Aheal, it wasn't too out of place. Yet the tea-- oh! Albus marveled at the crimson sheen. Could it be?

Albus sniffed the tea. No way. It really was! Crimson elderflower from Lunarian Gardens. Albus took a slow sip feeling his aether reserves fill up. To think they would be served a luxury item like this!

Albus followed Veri's and Leum's example and placed his hand on an obsidian plate, feeling trace amounts of aether leaving his fingers.

Since August mentioned causing a dead zone to appear, Albus was certain that this Aheal was in the know about August being a dark dryad. The flow of the conversation felt a little bit off, though, it felt like an interrogation and if it was then… Albus looked around. There should be some familiar items around - oh, an orb of truth among two regular gems, and a glass of deceit hanging by a lamp, masked as a windchime.

If there were these two, then it was likely this Aheal had more of these. The only way to bypass their detection was withholding information, but if there was any subjective falsehood or magic induced falsehood (as in, interrogation target's memories had been tampered by someone else), then the artifacts would show it.

Albus was surprised to learn that Leum and Veri had been contracted just hours before-- but that said, being contracted and knowing each other were different things. And-- well, why would Leum destroy a town? It wasn't uncommon for dragons to rampage like that, but if someone of Leum's caliber went on a rampage, a single town was… very little damage.

The following things Leum said were confusing, but that was to be expected from an oracle/diviner. All future telling beings Albus had met had confused him. Albus peeked at the orb of truth from time to time, no lie was told. Albus also faintly nodded at Grisham's words - there was no need to use a master's authority.

The things Leum said were-- well, yes. Albus blushed, feeling sorry for the dragon and also… hoping August wouldn't ask him to do the same about something he didn't want to tell-- but peeking at August, Albus could tell that August hadn't expected a response like this. He didn't think it was possible, but August's presence thinned out even more, now there not being even a human presence there.

Albus had no idea about human organizations, cardinals, bishops or anything of that sort, but he did listen to what was told. Seemed like some guys were sent after Leum, yet they were too weak to tackle Leum, which made sense - even multiple Aheal military units wouldn't be enough to handle a dragon of Leum's caliber, not to mention that Leum could divine things - they wouldn't even have a chance to catch him by surprise.

August's caution towards these bishops was, Albus guessed, because he might reveal what he is in a battle with them. He didn't think it was an issue of power, yet… perhaps it was.

How much of a dryad's power could August use if he was tied to a physical shape? Albus couldn't read aether flow off August's body due to legendary tier presence concealment being in place, but he did know that magicians were limited by their vessel. For that reason all magic users in Ahea spent time to train their body. In the previous conversation in the forest Albus had overheard that August was very young, ten times younger than Albus himself, and since this young master had struggled to develop presence concealment, there was a very low chance his vessel was of a decent size.

Most likely, the way he was, his master could use only a teeny tiny bit of his power without breaking the frail body he had. That meant that, practically, August might be incredibly weak. For a physical body to handle a dryad's potential it would take a millennium of expanding one's vessel and for the training of that sort - August would need to lift his presence concealment first.

Since familiar shapes were based on their master, by the feeling in Albus own body, Albus could tell that August's body was akin to that of a high elf. Immortal if not damaged too badly, only aging enough to match the maturity level of the soul. If August trained, then he could eventually use more power.

Albus train of thought was interrupted by a question Grisham asked. "How were you previously called?"

Albus didn't want to reply, he didn't want to risk his family learning about him being alive and here. He looked over at his master to know if he should reveal his name, hoping that he wouldn't need to.

August nodded, however.

"Albusflores von Plaustribus," he said, feeling a sense of distance from his own name. How odd. He had always liked his own name, yet now there was a sense of loss in it, that feeling shook him up.

Grisham was surprised at it. "What would a child of Cirrus be doing in Urea?" he asked.

Albus choked up a little, his throat felt dry. He didn't want to think about his mother, when he most likely would never see her face again. All thanks to Glacies. "I was betrayed," he said, a sad smile appearing. "Not that it matters anymore," he said tears starting to form in his eyes. He wasn't even Albusflores anymore, he had lost that life.

Albus could feel a warm hand on his shoulder and as he looked at it, his eyes met with Veri's. She was giving him a warm, gentle smile. "You have a new life now," she said, almost as if sensing his feelings.

Mhm. He did. He felt hope fill his heart. He now had a new family. Riveria showing an expression like that caused her to overlap with Admiral in Albus' memories.

"You can murder them later," Veri added with the same gentle smile.

Albus couldn't help but smile, Admiral wouldn't go down that route, but this was better for the current him. No one stopped him from taking revenge. Perhaps it was a blessing he could become a familiar of a dark dryad as - firstly, nothing could beat dark alignment for perfectly shapeshifting into something else and, secondly, dark alignment had the most horrid, torturous curses. This body he had gained from August's blood was half-dark aligned, yet he had kept the same aether pool as he had in his contra form. Albus nodded with confidence, no one was better equipped to take revenge on Glacies than him. Thinking of revenge was unthinkable for the usual Albusflores, but he was completely unrestrained in this sleep deprived delirium.

"Who betrayed you, by the way," Grisham asked.

Bitterness settled on Albus' tongue. "Glacies von Campisnivalis."

"Child of Nix?"

Albus nodded. Yes, she was a child of his mother's best friend. Who knows where the rotting began or why and it was meaningless to think about it.

Albus tilted his head slightly seeing Grisham take on an amused smile, but Albus did not aim to ask about it and there was a knock on the door. Moments after they got bracelets to put on. ID's, huh? There was something about removing a dead zone and getting someone out, but Albus chose to focus on his tea, he had drank enough for it to show it's effects, but that didn't make it any less enjoyable. Luckily he had enough time to match up with Mandy about finishing it.

As Albus resumed walking he noticed that something was… missing. He did his best to put on a pokerface, even if internally he was going 'oh crap, oh crap, oh crap', he had changed sex-- the suddeness of it all made him feel indecent. The tea had recovered a little bit of his mind's clarity and he recalled the delirious ideas he had about 'mother of Urea's unicorns'. This was insane. His body had taken that delusion seriously.

Luckily his chest had not grown much and his clothes were loose enough to cover things up, but ugh-- He didn't want anyone to know about this. Like that Albus zoned out the conversation August had with Leum, only snapping out when they met another person by a fountain. A human with dark alignment, but not a dark elf… peculiar. And just like that the three of them were passed over to this Hal guy before Albus had a chance to say a thing.

"Uh - so which of you is Leum?" Hal asked, as he led them to a store nearby.

"That would be me," Leum replied with a smile.

Hal looked thoughtful for a while, then looked the three of them over. "Excuse me if that sounds rude, but what gender is Albus?"

Albus felt grateful August had just left, "Um--" he let out a sound, shocked at his own voice-- even that had become feminine. He blushed. "Girl."

Riveria and Leum both snorted, trying to hold in laughter.

Albus squinted at the both of them-- uhhh, they totally knew what this was about. So embarrassing. Albus wanted to crawl into a hole. From the outside he was sure he looked like some… desperate repressed unicorn falling for the first beauty he saw. The repressed part might even be true and that embarrassed him even further. Unicorns weren't supposed to sleep around, they married and had a family and that was it. Bicorns were the ones sleeping with everyone and everything, hence why depraved dark dryads took them as familiars in ancient times.

"Sorry about that," Hal said, not seeming all that sure what was going on.

"It's okay," Albus said. And soon after Hal was passing them over to various shopping assistants, who helped them get everything starting from underwear ending with accessories and to finish it off they were taken to a style-something-person who showed them how to do make-up and hair and someone painted their nails as well. Truth be told, it looked complicated as heck and Albus wasn't sure he (now she) could do it well. Trial and error, he supposed. Aheals used magic for things like those, doing it like this felt kind of barbaric.

"Think you can do it?" Hal asked them as they walked towards a restaurant to get a take-away.

"Seems easy enough," Leum said, likely because he had to do far less stuff than Albus and Veri.

"Hal, do we really need that, it doesn't look like most people on the street spend that much effort on their tribal painting make-up whatever," Riveria asked, her question was purely curious.

"Your choice," Hal replied. "I put you through the full course so you know what to do if a need comes up. Knowing how August looks when he leaves the house I'd say you need to have your hair in order and either add some color to your eyes or lips to show you care. Also, August has a thing for girls with painted nails, if that's relevant."

Both Veri and Albus looked down on their hands. So August likes that… Oh, then it was good!

As she looked down on her nails, Albus didn't catch the wry smile Hal made when seeing their reactions.

"Can you lead me to where August lives?" Hal asked next, once he had a bag of take-away food in his hands.

For a familiar it was easy to find their master, so soon enough they arrived. August had said to Grisham that his apartment had turned into a cursed forest, but seeing and hearing were two different things. Albus had never imagined that cursed forests were this beautiful. They were always described as being awful and full with malice, forest spirits taking on vicious forms, but other than being silent and lacking animals or bugs, the cursed forest in August's apartment was majestic and felt like home despite it being the first time Albus went into it. It was odd to experience, but it made sense. This place was their master's domain, it would feel like home regardless of what it was like, but Albus sure felt grateful for it being like this.

Sadly, it seemed like August paid their looks no attention, but Albus wasn't too upset about it, sitting down and enjoying her surroundings instead. August and Mandy talked about something complicated which Albus felt she should understand, but she honestly had no clue.

Luckily the food Hal had gotten had some veggie only options, but before Albus could dig in Mandy asked the question Albus didn't want to respond to, but-- Albus did her best to put on a poker face and blatantly lied.

"I decided to be a girl. August said we should blend in and my current appearance fits a human girl better," she said, hoping that the dragons wouldn't snitch her out.

Safe. The two made amused smiles but said nothing and the conversation moved on without Albus needing to continue to lie-- much. Albus did feel a bit peeved when it turned out that August contracted her in confusion, but what could you do, she let out a sigh.

The conversation shifted back to Albus only when Hal asked what she had been before contracting August and Albus honestly replied by now having figured that Hal was August's brother and 'in the know'.

The way August looked at her in disbelief was kind of hurtful, though… she did slip something she shouldn't have in all that confusion and the sight of her puking in the forest was disgraceful, but… it wasn't without a reason. Albus blushed, pouting. "I said I was sorry."

"I'm surprised Ahea has spacecraft," Hal said.

Albus tilted her head, surprised, but glancing at August it seemed like August knew. Only Mandy and Hal appeared to be surprised. "Of course we do," she said. "Differently to Urea, Ahea does not have dryad protection that isolates both extradimensional and outer space threats."

Uh-- true, it made sense. Both Mandy and Hal nodded.

"Wasn't Ahea said to be peaceful?" Mandy asked.

"It is," Albus said with pride. "Our military is amazing. We mobilize instantly, teleport towards danger and deal with it so fast regular citizens don't even notice. We have had exactly zero war induced casualties for the past three centurie--" Albus's shoulders sunk down, realizing that this had changed. "Our spacecraft will mark the biggest war causality in the past two millenia, I guess," she added, recalling how the presences of her fellow crew members extinguished one after another, even admiral… Albus felt her vision starting to blur. Just how many times could one cry in a day?

Again, Albus felt the warmth on her shoulder and it wasn't hard to tell it was Riveria. Riveria was a far warmer person than her reputation hinted and Albus felt grateful it was so.

"Is it fine if we don't contact Ahea about it?" August asked, frowning.

About that - Albus had already come to her decision. There was resolve in her eyes. "The military will deal with it without me needing to say anything," she said, the fireworks in the sky would be obvious and given the blast, it wouldn't be hard to narrow down what shot at the ship.

Albus didn't wish to reason using 'protecting you might be harder work than dealing with this situation in Ahea', so she mentioned some personal reasons. "And I'd rather Glacies doesn't know about me being alive." Her eyes were dark as she said it. "And it's not like I can face my family anymore," Albus added, looking sideways. She'd rather not tarnish her family's honor.

"What was the deal with bicorns?" Mandy asked.

Albus was at a loss of words, turning red. She had been so confused and overwhelmed before she was knocked out by Riveria she didn't even recall what sort of stuff she had mumbled-- if Mandy mentioned bicorns, Albus was afraid to even ask.

Riveria came to the rescue. "Ahea has these weird theories about light and dark dryads. Light ones being pure and innocent and Dark ones being depraved or what have you."

And Albus felt like that wasn't too far off given that August was dating Mandy. Right now Albus wasn't afraid of Mandy, having gotten used to her more or less, but that didn't change the fact that Mandy had an aura of death and outside of this apartment she looked frightening. Not to mention that conversation in the train.

August's eyes turned lifeless from hearing that, but Albus didn't quite catch the meaning of that look, but Mandy's expressions seemed to hint that there might be something in it too.

"There's no bigger honor for a bicorn to be contracted by a dark dryad and unicorns and bicorns have this rivalry thing going on where they try to do everything in the opposite, so it's something related to that," Riveria added.

Albus nodded to confirm that bit, she wouldn't say they were rivals per se', just that bicorns were something a unicorn wouldn't ever want to be like. "It would be a great dishonor to my family if anyone finds out. So I will only go back to take my revenge when I have learned to shapeshift into another form and learn some horrid dark alignment curses to slowly torture Glacies into committing suicide and then I will eat her soul." Albus expression changed into a bright expectant smile at the last two parts, the dark alignment in her current body would allow her to do it all. How awful and completely unlike a unicorn, but that was exactly the type of end Glacies deserved.

Ceruleum and Riveria looked proud and Albus felt even better about this plan. She didn't look towards Mandy or Hal and thus didn't notice the looks of silent terror they exchanged.

The conversation shifted again, this time toward August needing to join a certain human organization. Albus was clueless about those, but by now she knew that there was Guild (August was a part of it and they were registered in it as his familiars), Church (a place August needed to avoid, and it seemed it had ties to Soleans) and right now she learned about Witchcraft community (a place that might be related to Terrea, but through this conversation it seemed like August might join them even so).

Veri offered to introduce August to some witches during solstice and Albus eyes sparkled over. Looked like them going to the even was a set deal. "Tiamat's party~" Albus hummed as she munched on a carrot.

"Albus, in case you can tell - what kind of mess is happening over at Ahea," August asked.

Albus finished munching, then thought a bit, it didn't look like August was asking about the whole state of affairs, just the incident. "Something is off with Hades, one of their factions seems to be looking for something or someone in secret. I don't know much more than that. But - well, knowing just this much was enough for them to destroy our ship, so--"

Albus realized her mistake. "You better not tell anyone--" Albus said, her voice drowning out seeing their expressions.

August sighed. "And that betrayal?" Looked like he no longer cared about knowing too much.

Albus straightened her back and recounted the events of Glacie's betrayal.

August squinted after hearing it. "Are you completely sure you don't need to report that?"

"Officially Albusflores von Plaustribus has died and dead men tell no tales," Albus said, feeling lifeless. She had decided. Military would deal with it, but they were a smaller group and she wouldn't risk the life of her master for the sake of speeding up investigation a little bit.

August shrugged and gave up.

Albus was grateful he wasn't pushy about things like those. The less she needed to explain the less… troublesome and embarrassing it would be. Their meal time was soon over, the food items in Urea weren't too different from those found in Ahea, they were different, of course, but Albus could get used to the nuances.

After that Albus unpacked the stuff Hal had bought for her and taught Veri and Leum how to fold theirs. Albus had been a part of military for more than a century, so she was used to changing clothes among others. It was a bit odd to have female lingerie out on a display, but since no one else seemed bothered, Albus shrugged that detail off as well.

Mandy was curious about her spatial storages, so Albus showed them, although she kept the activation methods a secret - in Ahea it was common sense to not reveal those even to your superiors. After that August asked them to clean up a kitchen area and even if Albus felt very sleepy, she set to work without complaint and when they were done for the day, she passed out on the soft flowery ground instantly. It almost felt like the flowers embraced her tired body.

***

A doorbell rang and Albus slowly opened her eyes. Her mind had finally regained the clarity it should have.

For a moment she stared at Riveria's sleeping face, yesterday's events sinking in and filling her chest with shame far worse than one might get after a wild drinking party. What was even going on with her life?

She had:

Survived a serious Hadean attack. Survival rate - 0.001%

Crossed the boundary and escaped a Snarghlah'ahd. Survival rate for a unicorn - should be 0.

Contracted a dark dryad. Chances of that happening - 0, it has never occurred before. At least there are no records of it and by all logic - a unicorn should not be attracted to half-dark aligned beings… Not that she could tell with his presence concealment.

Developed a crush (?) on this very same dark dryad… and deluded herself into considering him a mate despite him having a lover already. This went against everything Albus considered to be proper.

Acted all chummy and casual with two chaos age dragons. She even twirled around with Riveria like a child and spoke to Dragon of Fate with no honorifics, shamelessly asking questions like he was her private encyclopedia.

Displayed unsightly joy about a celebrity event (Tiamat's party).

Carelessly revealed secret information and almost put her own master in danger.

Openly and freely discussed her revenge and even made a gruesome plan to consume Glacie's soul.

Wow. Albus curled up into a ball, holding on to her head. She wanted to blame sleep deprivation and tragedies occurring to explain it all, but - explaining and blaming wouldn't be of any use. She did all that and she needed to own it, take responsibility and make plans to ensure nothing like that repeats.

What could she have done differently?

Albus uncurled and ran the memories through her head. Most of the things had been completely out of her control, but there was one thing that hadn't been. She had done her best to stay awake, that had been her mistake. After she was saved, she should have passed out. The contract couldn't be helped, but everything after that… if Albus had passed out, then most likely Riveria would have carried her around while she was out cold and in that case…

She wouldn't have acted as indecently as she had and right about now she would only have grievances about not being able to face her family and losing Admiral. Now that her mind was clear, she went over her decisions as well, yet it looked like her delirious mind had enough sense in some ways. Albus didn't know about the part of gruesome revenge, but the part of not contacting Ahea and prioritizing protecting August felt right.

This wasn't quite the promotion she wanted, but her status was higher than it had been in Ahea. the most she could become in Ahea would be a battleship captain, but here she was a familiar of the highest order diety class of a dimension. The shape she had right now had some flaws, but it had a growth potential that would overstep anything a unicorn could become. She was no longer limited to blank alignment magic that was only good for precision work, barriers and restoration type healing. This body could learn and use light and dark alignment magic and that meant she now had the opportunity to gain the battle ability she was always envious off in others.

Albusflores von Plaustribus was dead and Albus knew that it would take her time to come to terms with it. Yet - she was now Albus from August's Garold's familia and a part of her knew that this new role would allow her to break the shackles her previous role put on her. It would take time. But perhaps she could change now and wouldn't need to walk the path chosen for her by her family.

Albus let out a breath and got up. She could sense August being in another room and Mandy was making coffee while various food items floated into shelves and sorted themselves out. In this shape Mandy didn't look frightening, but that ability was scary as heck - Albus had not lost a unicorn's sensitivity to aether flow and to her it looked like dark alignment threads like those of a spider spread out from Mandy's back and did all the work with ease. Albus could do something similar, but only one thing at a time, yet here Mandy was - precisely adjusting force and moving ten things at a time without even looking. With ease, seeming like her mind was elsewhere at that.

Albus gulped. She didn't even want to imagine what it would be like to fight against someone like that. She felt lucky that Mandy was on August's side not against him and even luckier to have heard about Mandy's take on sharing August-- even if it one day comes up that she has an embarrassing crush on August, she probably won't be killed.

Okay. Albus took a breath and decided to ask something she was curious about. "Do we need to wash using shampoo and things to blend in?" to put it simply that was very inconvenient. Ahea had baths, but those were more for relaxation, cleaning was done using simple purifying spells.

Mandy tilted her head and Albus could see the question in those blue eyes. Rather than blue of a summer morning, Mandy's eyes reminded of blue of november noon - they were a shade darker than the eyes Albus currently had.

"I mean, I'm more used to just," Albus said and cast a purifying spell, drawing a small half triangle over her chest. A bit of light passed over her body, clearing away all impurities from her and her clothes.

Mandy looked surprised, yet pleasantly so. "I think it's best to ask August," she said, seeming uncertain, though.

The doorbell rang and Mandy left. All the items were already arranged in the shelves. Albus looked over at the kitchen area they had cleaned the day before, then went to sit down in among the flowers as Mandy and August busied themselves with another guest arriving.

August appeared right next to Leum and reached out to pinch Leum's nose, having him wake. It was incredible to see the dragon of fate being woken like this--

"Aug, you could have woken me with a kiss or something," Leum said as he yawned.

August sighed. "Go form an oath with the guy who just came, so he doesn't leak anything."

"Fine," Leum said and got up to walk towards the door.

Then August played the same trick on Veri, although that didn't turn out as well, as Veri pulled August down to use him as a body pillow. Albus felt a little envious, but only for a while, as August kept poking Veri till she had no choice but to wake up. Same as Leum she said. "Aug, you could have woken me with a kiss."

"As if that would work on you," August said with pursed lips.

Veri yawned. "Fair point." She admitted and got up, drawing the same half triangle over her chest.

"August, can I ask something?" Albus spoke up then, remembering her question.

August nodded.

"Can't we just use purifying spells to clean up?" She asked.

"That's a good question," he said, stepping closer to Veri, to sniff at her.

Veri blushed, she was surprised, but happily so.

"It's faint, but I can still smell forest on you," he said. "Should be fine with some perfume and hairspray, I guess."

Albus sniffed at her own hair and certainly there was the fresh scent of leaves and forest flowers in it. But didn't elves scent that way? But - true, she wasn't an elf, scenting like an elf when you were not one was suspicious. It did feel a bit odd not to have any unicorn smell on her, though.

According to some old classmates unicorns had a scent of snow, but to Albus that description had always felt too vague, same how it probably felt to dragons if you described them to scent like fire, after all, Salamanders also scented of fire, but Dragons and Salamanders didn't scent the same at all.

Veri also smelled her own hair, nodded and got some perfume and hairspray. She applied perfume, then there was a brief pause of thinking and Veri used some magic to set her hair in the same style as the hairdresser did the day before only then spraying it over. Albus did something similar, except rather than using magic, she just brushed her hair to set it up. And just when they were done, Leum returned with what seemed to be two humans and a dustbun.

Albus thought there would be introductions, but not the case - Mandy went to make breakfast and August asked the guest to pass something over. Turned out - a pile of paper.

"Albus, you don't eat meat or eggs, right?" Mandy asked in passing.

"If I have the choice I only eat plants," Albus replied, not finding the question odd in any way. Unicorns were commonly known to be plant eaters, although Albus wasn't certain if Ureals would know given that Urea no longer had a unicorn population in it.

Veri and Leum stuck to August's sides, reading the documents along with him.

Only a few minutes after Mandy had asked, Albus recieved a salad bowl. Quick--!! And since the three had finished reading a page by then, Mandy sat right next to Albus and ate a salad while holding up the paper sheet in front of them so they both could read.

The salad was good! Ahea didn't have beans (or peas) like those yellow ones, but other ingredients felt familiar.

Mandy asked how Albus knew Urea's language and writing and Albus replied that she inherited language comprehension from August. Mandy also asked about Fae language and Albus honestly replied that she might have some troubles with that, same how Fae paths were a bit beyond her at this point.

The paper sheets described fifteen different happenings of odd magic use, most of them with magic that wasn't common in Ahea, but Albus did recognize some Solean and Terrean tricks, and bronze alignment-- Hadeans? What were they doing in Urea? That shouldn't even be possible - Hadeans were astral formations lacking physical aspect at a level where Urea's environment itself would make their bodies fall apart.

August took out a map and Albus followed Mandy to step closer to them. By that point everyone had finished their breakfast.

Leum pointed at something, saying "This one is the one that consumed that god and life force."

Albus eyes widened when she saw what Leum was pointing at. Silvery and metallic alignment - "It's a hadean royalty." Unbelievable. What the heck would someone like that do in Urea. Hadean royalty were precious beings very tightly guarded, for one to be here - "But how can that be, it's not possible for them to sustain their shape in Urea." Unless they had committed the taboo and murdered someone…

"Hadeans have a metallic looking alignment?" August asked.

"Yes," Albus affirmed, still thinking. There was no doubt. If the royalty could sustain their shape they had killed another hadean, yet the fact that they ate a partial amount of life force in Urea hinted that they weren't really of a murderous nature.

"Could this be what Hadeans looked for in Ahea?" August asked with a wry smile, a tired look settling on his face.

"... it could be," Albus said. "But the thing is - the Hadeans who were looking wanted to have that someone or something destroyed and they offered Abyss cores for any information." Even if this member of royalty had murdered someone, Hadeans just-- weren't into capital punishment. Even from the brief interactions Aheals and Hadeans had, that bit was very obvious - it was against Hadean values to kill their own people regardless of how heavy were their crimes. Hadeans had a similar kind of immortality to Aheals and shared similar values on how to treat life and what atonement looked like. They could peacefully arrange their deals exactly because they had this common value.

"Abyss cores?" August asked.

"Power source for Hadean spaceships, more lightweight and longer lasting than-- military secret technology we have," this time Albus caught herself before revealing too much. Due to the unconditional trust familiars felt towards their master, it was somewhat hard to conceal things. Yet a more important detail was… "But why--" Why would they want to kill this Hadean royalty? Albus frowned. "Could there be a usurpation happening in Hades?"

August crossed his arms. "Or a battle for succession."

Albus' eyes widened… that was a very Ureal way of taking it, but she couldn't shrug it off completely either. Given how much authority Hadean emperor had, there was enough basis to eliminate competition.

"Why else would they try to sell state secret technology (I guess it ought to be one) just for the chance of killing a single person in secret? Hadeans don't make their statements in secret, right?" August added.

Albus looked down. True. The fact that this searching party offered something that valuable… something was going down a really bad path in Hades. "No. They have always been very open and direct with Ahea before," Albus said. She was surprised that August seemed to know about the stance Hadeans took, but that was a minor concern compared to other things.

"Do we catch this royalty and exchange them for abyss cores?" Riveria asked. Didn't look like she was particularly worried about anything.

"Hm, seems like an easy target," Ceruleum added, an amused smile appearing on his lips.

Yep, these two were dragons through and through-- Albus wasn't surprised. That's the reason why Aheal military had no dragons in it. If need arose Aheal military cooperated with dragons, yes, but dragons weren't a part of it.

"You would pass a-- prince of some world over to possible terrorists to kill?" the guest finally spoke up, squinting.

Albus was a bit surprised at the assumption they were a 'prince'... no, right, she had heard that Urea was oddly male centric, as in - females often didn't even 'count' as possible candidates for ruling or inheriting titles. In that case this assumption probably made sense.

Even if the two dragons considered something like that, the expression Mandy was making gave Albus a feeling that - not gonna happen. In this familia Mandy was higher in the hierarchy than the dragons, her feelings on the matter would play a bigger role. August didn't seem to be the type to jump in on something like that either.

Leum recounted the tale of them invading Hades fifteen millennia ago. It was a well known record in Ahea's military and Albus knew it in better detail than those Leum mentioned. Rather than thinking about that, her mind was spinning thinking what would be best to do, without her even noticing her fingers had dug in deep enough in her own arms to leave marks.

"Albus, what do you want to do?" August asked, snapping her out of it. Albus was startled and couldn't form any words at first, she hadn't been able to come up with anything yet-- She let her arms fall to her sides. Not the best option, but might as well tell her thoughts on it as best as she could.

"If I was still Albusflores von Plaustribus," she started, looking down "Then I would want to approach the Hadean royalty as secretly as possible and figure things out and then, I'd try to get them to Ahea, secure them and try to sort things out in an open diplomatic negotiation. Ahea and Hades have a non-involvement peace pact, yet it is based on a promise made by Hadean royal family. Even with as little knowledge as I have of Hades and our history, I can tell that it's bad news for Ahea if this promise gets called off."

Albus looked up. "But as Albus, a familiar of a Ureal die--" Cough. Albus stopped herself, peeking at Ian, then continued. "I feel that it would be safest to secure this person nevertheless and pass them over to Tiamat before anyone else gets to them. If even a tenth of what I've heard of Tiamat is true, then I'm certain that she would make a decision that would fit Urea's interests the most." Tiamat was a dragon, that was the risky element in this, but at the same time Urea was her home and she was contracted to one of Urea's dryads who maintained the barrier. If Urea perishes so would Tiamat.

To Albus' relief, Leum felt the plan made sense and things were set in motion to follow it through. Leum did a few divinations to choose who would be going on the mission and it looked like only August, her and dragons were safe to go.

For some reason, they had to go to another room to change clothes. Probably due to the guest being there, it might be impolite towards them? Albus had no idea about Urea's customs, so she did what August asked with no complaint, and just as they had changed clothes and were about to apply make-up, August appeared in their midst, holding a map. "We are out of time," he said, and when Albus caught a glimpse of the map, the silvery spider-shaped spot was surrounded by three bronze ones - all spider-shaped as well.

August caught Albus and Veri by hands, Leum caught on to Veri and August pulled them all out by the doors of the apartment. The leap was so short, Albus didn't even get dizzy.

Back in the room with the apple tree, an eyeshadow packet fell into moss, yet no one bothered to pick it up. No questions were asked as they ran down the stairs and towards the busiest street nearby.