True talismans are made by imbuing something with Qi while it’s being made. The most powerful ones are made by someone close to the person they’re meant for as the intent will always be stronger. Even a poorly made talisman when made by a loved one will be stronger than one made by a stranger no matter how well crafted it is.

  “The more you connect with your inner power and the more familiar you become with it, the more control you will have.” Beom said, “as you've likely already noticed, the power is trying to merge with you and that causes… changes.”

  Tae had definitely noticed the changes. They weren't exactly subtle. He'd had some tendencies towards what he was now mentally referring to as dragon behaviour, but it was happening more often.

  “Dragons are creatures of great pride. Your ancestor is known for his benevolent nature, but that doesn't change the fact that he is a dragon.” Beom continued. “He had eons to become what he is, you are in comparison, a hatchling.”

  “So, I'm the dragon equivalent of a toddler?” Tae asked.

  “In how all other divine and celestial creatures, especially the dragons, will see you, yes.”

  “In practicality?” Tae was hoping that by being raised believing he was human would give him some kind of edge. The idea of having as little control as Nari, Wook, or Haru was not appealing.

  Beom laughed. “You'll have an advantage over full blooded dragons. You have just enough human in you that your mind and body are that of an adult. Your control, while clumsy now, will increase with the speed of mortals.”

  Tae didn't particularly care for the wording Beom chose, but he didn't have the luxury of complaining about something that trivial right now. Beom served the White Jade Dragon closely and was trusted enough to be charged with guiding and watching over the celestial dragon's descendants. He was likely the only being who could teach Tae what he needed to know.

  “I want you to continue to meditate and familiarize yourself with your power.” Beom instructed. “We'll come out here every day so you can safely transform without accidentally demolishing buildings. The more time you spend in your dragon form, the more familiar you are with it, the more control you'll have over it.”

  “Like a child learning to walk and then run.” Tae sighed.

  “Exactly.” Beom agreed. Beom smiled at him, his sharp canines clearly visible. “You're picking this up far faster than you think you are.”

  The reassurance helped some, but Tae was hoping the control would come a little sooner. He had noticed he was getting increasingly territorial and possessive, especially of Min. It had gotten to the point where he had to fight the urge to growl at anyone who touched Min, except the children. He'd been relieved to find that how he felt around children hadn't changed much. If anything he was more protective of children than he'd been before.

  “This has probably been a lot to deal with, you'd dealt with the dragon in you before by assuming it was a curse of some kind. Pushing it away, shunning it.” Beom said. Tae nodded. “Now you need to embrace it. Let it become part of you. Only then will you have full control over it.”

  “Will the blood-lust ever fade?” Tae asked quietly.

  Beom was quiet for a moment. The waterfall behind him seemed to get louder in the silence. The barest of breezes rustled the leaves of the trees around them.

  “Not exactly.” Beom replied. “Your control over it will get stronger, but dragons are shaped by their youngest years. You've seen too much bloodshed for it to fade away now, but it will… quiet, over time.”

  “So it's not caused by the remnants of the demonized dragon?” Tae asked.

  “It was made worse by it, but no, that is not the cause of it, not now at least.” Beom answered.

  Tae looked at the divine tiger puzzled.

  “The demonic dragon was fully cleansed from you. That's why your first transformation was so painful. While you'll always carry scars from it, it is truly gone now.”

  Tae thought on that. The patches of black scales were likely visible marks of the scars left on him from the demonic dragon. It wasn’t the first time something that had tried to control him had left lifelong scars so it didn’t really bother him too much.

  Beom had settled into a meditation position and Tae shifted slightly so he could join his new mentor. There was very little chance this would end quickly. It only took a few measured breaths for Tae to find himself in a trance-like state. His having trained since he was a child had made this part of things easy for him. There was also something about this valley that relaxed him. Like the very nature of this place was trying to comfort him.

  Tae felt his soul expand to fill the little clearing he sat in. He felt the white-blue soul of Beom not just next to him, but surrounding him around the edges of the clearing. They’d done this enough times that Tae knew it was to keep his soul from expanding further. Beom didn’t want him to get distracted. Tae turned his attention back to his own soul. When he’d first done this he’d thought his soul was white like his hair, but he now knew that wasn’t the case. Colours shimmered inside like a polished opal stone. The areas marked with black weren’t dark, but where all the colours merged together.

  Tae studied the colours, today’s assignment had been to figure out what each one meant to him. Beom had held a strict poker face when Tae had first unleashed his soul like this, which was more than enough indication that this shimmering iridescent blend of colours over, around, and intertwined with the white was not normal. So Tae examined the colours. The blue felt like the echo of emotions and memories he no longer remembered. The grey was the most familiar to him. But the colours he was drawn to were the greens, yellows, and gold. The moment he focused on them Tae knew what they were. He was grateful that Beom was in a meditative state with him and unable to see his physical body clearly. The moment Tae recognized those colours he knew tears had slipped from his closed eyes.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  ***

  Min sat in a shaded pavilion staring out at the valley below. He knew it would be several hours yet until Tae returned. Tae had changed rapidly. It was a good change, and Min was incredibly happy for him. It just meant there was a lot for Min to adjust to as well. He’d also never been away from his responsibilities that came from being an imperial prince for this long. The palace would have to burn down before he’d be willing to leave though. He was not stepping foot from this valley until Tae was ready to as well.

  There was so much for Tae to learn here. It also seemed to be helping Tae heal from those scars that Min had only recently gotten to see the depth of. He’d known Tae was broken and that the war had caused damage that was not visible to the naked eye, but those moments right before he’d met Beom had shown him just how heavy the burden Tae carried was. He had suspected survivors' guilt, he knew there was trauma from taking that many lives and having his life on the line like that. Tae had been a general, in charge of so many lives and responsible when the calls he made led to deaths.

  The rage that had burned in Tae’s eyes when he’d killed those men was so much deeper than that though. Those men and the one they served were responsible for so much of Tae’s pain. They’d been the ones to inflict those very physical scars on Tae’s body, and were responsible for every tragedy Tae had lived through. Min had no fear of Tae from his actions back then, if anything he thought Tae had given them deaths that were far too quick and good for them. However, given the situation Tae had needed to deal with them quickly. Min was mostly frustrated at how little help he had been.

  Min felt a Qi signature he recognized. He turned to see one of Tae’s uncle’s making his way to the wooden pavilion Min was seated in. Gwan, Sang-Ook had sought Min out several times since they’d first been introduced. As the man was the only other person here with black hair like himself Min had a feeling as to why. They were both outsiders to the clan but firmly attached to it through their partners. Though Sang-Ook had more ties to it as he was married to the current matriarch and had three children who were all very much part of the clan. His eldest was the current heir afterall. That had been an interesting situation during the beginning of their stay. Ryung had tried to hand the heir position over to Tae as it had originally belonged to Tae’s father. Min had barely managed to stay upright from how hard he’d laughed at the look of horror on Tae’s face at the time. Like himself, Tae did not want to be a leader or ruler.

  “Uncle, Sang-Ook.” Min greeted the man. They’d all insisted Min was family now. They’d started off that way, but got a lot more insistent about it after Tae transformed. The way anyone outside of the immediate family had suddenly treated him with the utmost respect had been odd. He was used to that behaviour being an imperial prince, but they’d treated him relatively normally until Tae had transformed.

  “Min,” Sang-Ook replied with a smile. “Would you mind if I kept you company for a while?”

  Min smiled. He knew that the older man would not mind in the slightest if he said no. He was remarkably easygoing. It took a lot to offend him from what he’d both been told and observed himself.

  “Please,” Min replied, gesturing to the empty seats. Sang-Ook chose the one across from him and turned to look out at the valley as well.

  “You have adjusted a lot faster than any of us expected.” Sang-Ook said after a long moment of silence.

  Min looked at the older man, eyebrow raised. Sang-Ook turned to meet his gaze and smiled. He was a man of easy smiles. Min usually found that suspicious but the pure nature of the man’s Qi had told him immediately that he was simply a gentle and happy person, entirely genuine.

  “It took me the better part of a year to wrap my head around it all when Eunsuh finally told me about it and introduced me to her family.” Sang-Ook chuckled to himself. “We’d all assumed it would take you both some time to adapt. Yet here you both are having been here a scant two months and already adjusted to most of the nature of this clan.”

  “Neither of us have ever had the luxury of being able to adapt to things slowly.” Min replied. He knew what Sang-Ook was saying was intended as a compliment, but they all seemed to forget occasionally just how much both he, and more importantly Tae, had been through. “Taking our time to adapt could have cost either of us our lives at any given point in our lives.”

  Sang-Ook grimaced, the grief and pain in his eyes clear for Min to read.

  “I know,” he said quietly and then sighed. “We all know that. We had actually expected you both to take longer to adjust due to that. It’s a lot more peaceful here than what you both are used to.”

  Min thought about that for a moment. He appreciated that a lot more than the initial compliment. He then thought about what Tae had told him about when he’d first ended up in the Seong clan. He realized that was closer to the behaviour they’d been expecting. Something about that pissed him off.

  “We’re not children.” He said sternly. “If either of us had stumbled across this place as children it would have taken us a long time to believe the peace and kindness was real. I have the advantage of being able to tell when people’s intentions differ from their words, something that has saved my life countless times. Tae though…” Min paused, he decided enough was enough. “If you’d met Tae as a child… one wrong move and there would have been dead bodies to deal with. Instead of focusing on how strange it seems that he’s as calm and collected as he is with everything he’s lived through, that he hasn’t blown up more than he has, maybe you should be grateful. You all should be grateful that he was found by the Seong clan when he was. That there were people there who could understand him. That someone saw through his walls well enough to be able to not just be careful, but fully comprehend what it was he needed. That he met people who saw him as he was and loved him. That they stood by him and helped him learn what it meant to be loved, to be human.”

  Min stood and walked away. He knew Tae’s family meant well, but some of the things they said were infuriating. They were so focused on their own guilt and grief over everything Tae had lost. He was grateful that Sang-Ook didn’t call out or try to follow him. Min would likely say something harsh to the man right now. He knew they were hurting too, and people who were hurting made mistakes when they were just trying to help.

  He was incredibly glad Tae was training right now. Min needed time to cool off. If Tae saw him like this he’d think someone had hurt him. Tae was not very good at thinking things through before acting when he thought Min was hurt. It was endearing, but complicated things. Tae had so much on his plate trying to adjust to how he was changing now that he’d discovered what he was. Min loved everything about Tae, and the parts of him that his connecting with his dragon origins was highlighting only made him love the man more. It just meant that Min had to be rational for the both of them until Tae had a handle on it all. It was reassuring in a way actually. Tae had seemed a little too perfect at times, knowing he needed him as much as he needed Tae… it was a bit of a relief.

  Min had instinctively been heading back to their quarters. The way Tae’s Qi had embedded itself in their shared space made it feel safer than anywhere else. Min shook his head. If he went there the echo of his emotions would likely reach Tae. That was enough to decide him against it. He turned and headed deeper into the mythical village-like compound. He nodded when people greeted him but never slowed his step, making it clear he was not interested in conversation.

  A half-smile tugged at his lips when he reached the library. It was a giant tower-like building. The treasures it housed were just as great. Min nodded to the men stationed outside, they enhanced their bodies with Qi and opened the massive metal doors. Min wasn’t sure anyone except maybe Tae or Beom could open those doors without enhancing their bodies with Qi first. The thought turned the half-smile into a full one. Tae had made it look so easy to open those doors. His heart feeling lighter at the memory Min stepped inside, ready to study as much as he could so he could be of more help to his lover. That and he was insatiably curious about dragons and everything them being undeniably real meant.