We were taken to the throne room where we found Arash who disappeared the moment the door opened to take his daughter in his arms with a big smile on his face.
"You look great, every day that passes you look more like your mother." (Arash)
"Dad, we can talk later…" (Nix)
"But I missed you so much…" (Arash)
"Sir, we have other people present." (Ortiz)
"Everyone here is a person who doesn't like formalities, so don't worry, Ortiz." (Arash)
"What an idiot father." (Caitlyn)
"Come my daughter, I want to know everything that happened since we separated." (Arash)
"..." (I)
Before anyone could say anything, Arash was already walking Nix in his arms out of the throne room.
He didn't even greet anyone, he simply ignored everyone giving attention only to his daughter, her selfishness was blatant and I didn't care, I know how important Nix is to him.
Without having the Dragon Emperor say what he was supposed to about the Ceremony, Ortiz stood still with his eyes open not knowing what to do before heaving a sigh and leading everyone to our chambers.
On the way, he apologized because of Arash's behavior, but it wasn't necessary, Arash did it knowing that none of the people accompanying me would care about this behavior.
Arash seems a little impulsive, but he's not an idiot, his insouciance just goes to show that we still have plenty of time until this ceremony I'm supposed to attend.
When we were all alone in an empty room inside the Castle of Dragons, I followed Magnus to another room being guided by him, it was the room with the statues where we were earlier.
Magnus in his Human form has many of my traits to the point of looking like Nix's brother as the two share brown skin color, red hair, and different colored eyes.
Magnus was 5'7 tall and imposing with a toned body with muscles worthy of a warrior, the way he carries himself is also normal most of the time.
One thing I noticed was his nervousness from the moment we arrived at the castle, it was also the first time he left the Dungeon and the floor where he has been training all this time.
It seems that none of the Dragons recognized him, but his nervousness was something I clearly noticed the whole way, especially when we passed this hall full of statues earlier.
"You don't need to be so nervous." (I)
"I know, but I thought someone might…" (Magnus)
"The only one who noticed was Arash, but he should have known in advance, I don't see Luminus failing to tell him about your situation." (I)
I noticed Arash's gaze shift for a second from Nix directly to see Magnus, that's enough for me to know, for sure he noticed who Magnus really is or was.
"But why did you want to talk to me?" (I)
"I wanted to talk about Mabel." (Magnus)
"If you're going to ask me for relationship advice, you're dead wrong, you should go talk to..." (I)
"What! No, you got it wrong! We don't have that kind of relationship!" (Magnus)
"She's someone important to me, but not that kind of important!" (Magnus)
"We can see each other every day, but that's why I like talking to her..." (Magnus)
"(Seeing someone that big behave like a teenager is almost funny.)" (I)
The more he denies it, the worse it gets, I couldn't help but shake my head at this Dragon's naivety, his dread and repeated attempts to explain are great demonstrations of what he really feels.
He spent a few minutes trying to explain to me without noticing his face turning red, his fear of what I said seems to have been greater than the nervousness of being inside the Castle of Dragons, it wasn't on purpose that I commented on that for him to calm down, but I'm glad to see your mind has wandered.
"(Looks like I should check this girl out later...)" (I)
cough cough
After he realized he was talking too much, he coughed a bit before rolling his eyes to the side trying to calm himself down, his lost eyes becoming more focused as his gaze fell on the only destroyed statue in this Hall.
"What did you want to talk about?" (I)
"My training with my Aura is almost complete and I have control over my power, I was wondering if I can start visiting the city." (Magnus)
"Mabel said she should talk to you first, but I also have a question if you don't mind." (Magnus)
"You can go to the city whenever you want, but you should talk to someone about some customs in our city, try to talk to Barok later, he can tell you everything." (I)
"About the question, I already said that you can say whatever you want to me, I'm not your boss, leader, or whatever you're thinking, I'm your father." (I)
"Talk to me normally, you don't have to be so formal or polite, just be yourself." (I)
"I'll try to keep that in mind, thanks." (Magnus)
"I was wondering if I can start building our tribe, from what Mistress Natasha has said, there aren't many Dragons under her command yet besides my brothers." (Magnus)
"I never seriously thought about it, can't we just stay as we are?" (I)
"I don't know if you realize your position, sir, but you are a Progenitor among Dragons, you are in the same category as the Primordial Dragons and the Dragon God himself." (Magnus)
"Dragons are important to the balance of the world and the entire universe, we are powerful by nature for a reason." (Magnus)
"We keep a balance between things, we protect important areas in a world, we fight against creatures that try to invade the world like the Creatures of the Abyss or more often the space monsters." (Magnus)
"Each tribe has its own characteristics and specialties, even being the youngest of my brothers, I can say that we are very combat-oriented, with a wide range of attack types." (Magnus)
"I found Dragons to be lazy by nature standing still for long periods of time and selfish by nature." (I)
"That's not wrong either, the more powerful the Dragon the less opportunities for him to act personally, particularly those like the leader of the Tribe who need to be ready to lead." (Magnus)
"My old Father stayed on our mountain for centuries, spent a lot of time helping with our training and waiting for the moment to act." (Magnus)
"(Why didn't anyone tell me that being a Dragon would only make more responsibilities fall on my head?)" (I)
"The boy is not wrong, young Progenitor."
While talking to Magnus, suddenly a female voice appears from a corner where a gray-haired woman was sitting with a piece of wood in one hand and claws protruding from the fingers of the other hand, she used her claws to scrape the wood when carving a little statue of mine.
"I didn't see the lady there when we arrived, did she hear everything we said?" (I)
"Mostly, I was thinking about something else and I didn't see it when they came in, I just started to pay attention to how much your son panicked explaining."
"Honored be Zadiris, Elder of Wood Dragons and mother of forests." (Magnus)
"(An Elder Dragon?)" (I)
"Don't be as serious as you were in the past, try to learn from your new Father." (Zadiris)
"..." (Magnus)
Magnus started to sweat and I can see her hand shaking, but I can't blame him, if this woman is indeed an Elder Dragon, from her words I can assume that she knows the truth about Magnus, which could put him at risk.
I look at her calmly, she's clearly strong, I can't say how strong, but at least she doesn't seem to be hostile towards Magnus and doesn't seem to have any bad interactions.
"Come, I have something to show you." (Zadiris)
As I walked behind her, I looked around the hall looking for something and it didn't take me long to find it, it was a statue that had the name Zadiris with the same titles and race described below, which Magnus called this woman.
"(No more doubts when her identity, the question is what does she want with me and why did she make a wooden sculpture of me?)" (I)
---------------
Pov Miriam (?):
She would arrive today, and I had to wait for her arrival to follow the next step of Project Zenith, I still wish I had done everything differently, it would have been faster, but she was always excessively careful.
"Ma'am, your new prosthesis is ready to specification."
"I'm on my way to getting it fitted, I also need a new eye, when will one with the specs I ordered be ready?" (I)
"I've been told there's nothing we can do about it, your current eye already has the best specs we can currently use."
"(So if something like what happened in the Elf's forest happens again, I'll be without one of my senses again...)" (I)
"(My domain of Aura is still superficial, it cannot be used as one of the senses, I knew I should have concentrated more on that aspect during that 1 year.)" (I)
While walking to the operating room, I was making plans, thinking about each part of the plan, nothing can go wrong this time, our enemies are acting more and more in secret, which demonstrates that they are not alone, so this plan cannot fail.
"[Reporting to Base Leader Miriam.]"
"[The vehicle carrying the president has just arrived.]"
"I'm going to the OR, tell her I'll be unavailable for the next 3 hours and follow her instructions." (I)
"[Understood.]"