XXI · Micah [5]

Mass release: 15/15

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Micah Gustavo Avak'yan Montevecchi

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"I thought it was just a legend we tell kids to sleep."

"No, it's a real thing, but aside from the beings that lie within the veil and from the actual spirits who go there, instead of going to paradise or hell, as both are a real thing, but just places of resting or divine punishment of sorts, and not connected to any religion one could think of, aside from the Goddess of Life and the God of Death," she passed her hands through her hair. "Aside from those, the only kinds who can try a connection into the veil are the dragons and the demons, any other would die in there, because your soul isn't... strong enough."

"You can try to go in there?" Nicolas asked.

"Not necessarily. How do I say this?" She ponded to herself. "If one isn't like my father was for a while and have the extremely rare spiritual magic that allows you to be there for however long you want, it would be a bit harder. You need to have some insane amount of magic, of soul cultivation, and of control to go there, and you can only stay for a week at best, before your body begins to lose strength and connection to your soul, then it forces your soul to come back and you shut down in a forced rest for a while to recover. That is, if you're really fucking strong, enough to easily murder an upper demon."

The idea of ever meeting an upper demon sent a dreadful chill down my spine, "So, you can't do that."

"Who knows?" She giggled and met my eyes, leaving me breathless. "I don't know how strong I really am without the seal. The seal weakning doesn't mean my magic is leaking away, it solely means my protection is fading, I'll only recover 100% of my strength when the seal is totally undone. I wouldn't have met beings from the veil if I wasn't strong in my core."

"You have what?" We all gasped.

"How?" Lawrence asked, eyes glowing stunned.

"It came to me," she rolled her shoulders. "There's one that comes and goes constantly. I would say it's my friend," then she giggled self-deprecatingly, "my only friend and my best friend. It knows who and what I am, it knows about my father, it knows what I went through, it knows my soul, so, I would say it's easier to have a relationship with it, like friendship. It sees right through me even when I try to lie, and you are all proof of how much of a good liar, I am."

"You have a relationship with a being of the veil?" For some reason, my alarms soared up and I felt sick with the idea. "What is it?"

"I don't feel like telling anyone, it's something I have for myself, not even my dad knew, and it's been around me ever since I was 4 or 5, I think. I've met others occasionally, but they never come back, this one does. So, I feel protective over it," she said slightly on the defensive, which only made me more annoyed.

["Jealous?"] Kento provoked me.

["What if it's trying to use her?"] I groaned.

["But what if it ain't?"] He countered.

["I don't have a good feeling about this,"] I said.

["Because you're jealous, of an animal, probably."]

["No, it's not jealousy. It's just too suspicious."]

"Now, back to what really matters," her eyes went to the headmaster. "You won't be able to read the books, neither to touch them, not to be arrogant, but I cannot have something so precious even slightly damaged by your hands. Dragon books are made for dragons, not for any other kind. There's gold in there, do not take a coin of it, or I'll know and I'll get pissed off, that's my gold, I found it, it's mine, and it has to belong to a dragon. When we go, use protection tools in your body, and training clothes that are magic proof. No one is allowed to smoke or drink alcohol or anything of sorts in there, it's sacred ground, but bring your own food.

"Ah, and water! You will need water, given how you will have some struggle getting used to being deep underground into the mountain. If any of you are claustrophobic, you will definitely freak out, not because it's small, but because the pressure down there might be high for you, and it has no way out aside from me taking you out of there. There's a bathtub with melted gold for spiritual recovering baths, do not touch it, the melted gold is boiling and only a dragon can withstand it, if you touch, you will lose whatever limb you touched the gold with. Stay away from the bathtub, from the bookshelves, from the gold, and don't touch the barrels."

"Barrels?" Rheia asked.

"Barrels of nectar, it's a divine drink that only dragons, upper and arch demons can have, if any of you try your luck with it, you will either be drugged and unable to ever recover, you will hallucinate and loose your sanity, or you will combust and die. The more aged the nectar, the stronger it is, the most delicious it is as well, like whiskey and wine, but the more lethal it is for you. It replenish one's stamina, magic, it fastens healing, it eases aches in the head and in the body like medicine, and it makes your body look better and your bones be stronger."

"Hah, no wonder dragons and demons look down on all of our kinds," Dean scowled. "It really seems like we're nothing in comparison."

"You ain't," she said frankly. "Hence why our kinds are so against having mixed children with kinds like yours. I'm a mistake, a genuine walking mistake," she giggled anxiously. "My dad knows he made a mistake when he fucked around with Nerin then, because I should not be born. It's so wrong that it doesn't even truly mix, in fact, as ridiculous as it sounds, I think the only way a dragon could be a hybrid, is if a dragon mated a demon, which is impossible in many ways, but again, I do think that's the only way one of my kind could be a hybrid. And if that even happens, we'll all be doomed as hybrids are born to be stronger than both their kinds."