The Dao of Magic

78 - Autonomy

Finally, some peace.

Sitting on Fe-Taak, an earth dragon much, much older than me, I breathe in slowly. The last few weeks were just too much. Thinking back on my behaviour, I don't recognise myself. The cool wind calms me down as I follow the turbulence trails with my eyes.

*SMACK*

Ow, what? A green stone with a metal chain drops in my lap. How did this get here? A few hundred possibilities flit through my mind this time. I see a small, black dot falling from the tower. Then my sight just loses him. Another one of his tricks.

Take another deep breath. These last few days were way too much. At this point, I just want to curl up in a cave and sleep a few centuries. Why did he get to me like that? Dragons are badly made, he said. Someone has had his fingers in the very makeup of my being.

My hand finds the green stone, and I take a closer look. It's just a stone. Thinking back to his story, I should put it on my forehead?

A diagram appears in front of me. Start here, then read this, and some optional parts. I take a look and it is the basics of cultivation with a braincore. I look at the stone wryly, I already know most of this. He told me himself. Thinking back, the amount of information indicates he must have talked for a very long time.

I tried to make compartments in my mind already, but things got really difficult and slow when I did that. I try it again, and my mind is a little less slow this time. I release the process and my thoughts speed back up.

I drop the chain around my neck anyway. I look down on myself. I also need to get some clothes. Let's not experiment with transforming into a dragon just yet. That feeling of drowning in my own... melted organs was horrible. And he didn't seem to care.

That's another reason. Selective caring. I don't really care about anything. I'll just go to sleep when something is bothering me and I will wake up right as rain. He doesn't seem capable of that. If he does care, he is great at hiding it.

There is just a intense focus on whatever shiny thing catches his eye. Maybe I am judging him too harshly. Then again, maybe he shouldn't mess with my mind like that.

Phah, dragons are created. Next thing he will claim that I have an inbuilt drive to find the strongest mate possible. Like I am ever going to believe that.

It's fine though, I'll just get more powerful. He was looking for large sources a mana, if I recall. Flight Mountain has heaps and heaps of mana crystals. I make a fist and feel the power inside my body. I never liked my human form, but now it seems like I will be stuck like this for a while.

Haah, I wish I was still young. I am a couple of thousand years old, as far as I know, but I feel older sometimes. The vigor of my youth sapped away by years of boredom and napping among other sleeping dragons.

'YOU SHALL LAND THERE'

A shudder runs through all three dragons as I mentally shout at my qi that surrounds them. It's weird and funny how similar to mana control working with qi is. It is also totally different though, I can't quite explain it.

I hold onto the spikes jutting from my ride and we descend towards a field of grass. A village is nearby, I will dump the shirt there and get some new clothes.

I bend sideways, to get a better look at the ground. The spike I was holding onto snaps in half and the dragon beneath me rumbles in pain. I look at the brown shard I just ripped off by accident. Fe-Taak could fall from the sky onto solid rock, and his scales would not snap like this. They might crack and he would not survive it, but such a clean separation needs immense force.