Everburn says “I like that you care so much for your children, even if they aren’t blood related. Yes, I will do that, but I think we should wait.”

  “Wait? Why?”

  Everburn says “Firstly, she is still very young by my race’s standards. Secondly, you should break the spell and see how that affects her before we do it.”

  “Alright, fair enough. If I don’t survive long enough, I would ask that you do that and adopt her in my place.”

  Everburn says “Very well, you have my promise.”

  “Thank you.”

  Everburn says “You have earned my help, no thanks needed. Now, next question?”

  “How is what has happened here going to affect my magic and enchanting?”

  Everburn says “As you increase your understanding of our language, your understanding of mana and its uses will increase. Do not use our language to enchant anything.”

  “Why not? Also, is this increased understanding part of the secret, or can I share it with my wife?”

  Everburn says “Creating intelligent artifacts is frowned upon and that is what happens when you enchant using our language. The increased understanding is not secret, you can share it. Just make sure you fully trust anyone you share it with. That kind of power has been known to corrupt people.”

  “Understood. Does every enchantment using draconic create an artifact? It can’t be used for simple enchantments?”

  Everburn says “No, it can’t. Our language draws too much power. There is no such thing as a simple draconic enchantment. You should also be aware that any enchanting done with our language will be noticed by beings of power.”

  “Alright. To be honest that is something of a relief. I was worried I would have to relearn everything about enchanting and then go back and replace everything I had already made.”

  Everburn says “I’m guessing from the way you said it that that would be a lot?”

  “It would be weeks, if not months, worth of work.”

  Everburn says “I didn’t realize that you had made so many enchanted items.”

  “Hundreds at least, maybe thousands. I have even made a couple of artifacts, although that was an accident.”

  Everburn says “Then I guess learning a new way to enchant would be bad.”

  “It would be time consuming, but it might also give us an edge in the war.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Everburn says “True, but while you won’t be learning a new way to enchant, you will be improving your enchantments through knowledge.”

  “Yes, but probably not enough that I need to re-enchant everything.”

  Everburn says “Alright. Next question?”

  “Um, you said essence is contained in beast cores. Is there a way, other than absorbing them, to extract the essence? Like with the dragonfish, could I extract the essence and then separate out the dragon portion?”

  Everburn says “I don’t know. I’ve never heard of anyone even trying something like that. You can manipulate life force, so you should be able to do the same to essence. I would ask Mulan since she was able to give you her essence. Other than that, I would ask your goddesses. Why do you want to separate out the essence?”

  “Alright. Something to experiment with later. I want to continue to evolve and dragonfish are the easiest means to do so. However, I want to turn into a dragon, not a fish. I may have already absorbed a few too many of them.”

  Everburn says “So, you want to be able to separate out the dragon from them and absorb just that. Interesting! If it is possible, it is going to take a lot of them to make any difference.”

  “That’s fine. I would rather hunt hundreds of them than kill any more drakes. Their numbers are already low, I don’t want to risk wiping them out.”

  Everburn says “Their numbers might not be as low as you think. Like us, the older, more powerful drakes can sleep for centuries. Also, drake eggs can last for years and still be able to hatch once conditions are right. It wouldn’t be so easy to endanger the species.”

  “I hope you are right, but I still prefer to be cautious. I will try my idea first and only hunt drakes if it fails. I have already killed several drakes, but I didn’t have much choice.”

  Everburn says “Yet you don’t mind killing the dragonfish?”

  “They are fish, they reproduce way faster than drakes. Not to mention, it is a big ocean, there are probably millions of them.”

  Everburn says “I don’t know that there are that many, but I get your point.”

  “Although, considering the drakes eat them, I would still hesitate to wipe them out. Who knows what the drakes would eat if they were gone.”

  Everburn says “Whatever they could find. Drakes don’t tend to be picky eaters, unlike dragons. Although, we mainly only eat things big enough to be worth the effort. Which isn’t a big list.”

  “I imagine not, but I am guessing you also don’t have to eat very often.”

  Everburn says “When awake and active, about once a year normally. We do tend to eat more before and after a long sleep.”

  “Is me waking you up going to cause a problem?”

  Everburn says “No, it is just hunger, it can be ignored.”

  “Open your mouth.”

  Everburn gives me a strange look, but he does as I ask and opens his mouth, which I could walk into. I grab my pouch and start pulling out pizza after pizza to throw into his mouth. It takes me about ten minutes to fill his mouth with pizzas and it strains my pouch to create that much food.

  “Alright, done.”

  Everburn says “Mm! That is delicious!”

  “Glad you like it. Unfortunately, my pouch can only create so much food, but hopefully that helps with the hunger.”

  Everburn says “It is enough to take the edge off, thank you.”

  “No problem, after all I woke you up. If I need to again I will see about making a stronger pouch. Maybe something that can make entire sides of meat.”

  Everburn says “That would be appreciated. So, next question?”

  “Actually, why don’t you teach me how to use soul attack and defense. Then you can go back to sleep and we can continue in the soulscape.”

  Everburn says “Alright.”

  Without saying anything else, he launches an attack at me, but it isn’t a normal attack. I can tell them just from seeing it, it is a soul attack, but I am not ready for it. Instead of raising a defense, I jump out of the way of the attack, but Everburn just launches another.

  He launches several more attacks, which I dodge, before throwing a faster attack. I instantly know that I won’t be able to dodge fast enough and out of instinct I raise a defense. It isn’t my best attempt, but it is just enough for me to stop the attack from hitting me.