The Dao of Magic

117 - Secession

Re-Haan is conflicted. That feeling in itself is fairly new. The situation she finds herself in is also new. The power surging through her head is also new.

The dragoness alway saw herself as different. From her rare colour and elemental affinity combination at birth, to the way she lived her life. She never used to sleep as much as all the other dragons and always wanted to know more. Instead of focussing on growing her own power base in hibernation, like all good dragons should, she wanted to do stuff instead of lying about all day, all week, all year.

Her banishment to the human kingdom of Shi-Eit as one of the watchers was a shock to no-one. Waking every ten years or so to check if the humans weren't fucking up too badly is seen like work beneath the status of a dragon by nearly all of the Flight, only suitable for troublemakers and political enemies.

A shame that sleeping is still the most efficient way to progress in power, even with qi, she thinks wryly. Having spent most of the past few weeks asleep in Drew's castle, she reached the core forming stage at a rapid pace. Even Drew told her she was one of the fastest progressing new cultivators he had ever seen.

That's why, when Drew told her about the mass migration of mana mutants that he caused, she wasn't angry at him per se. She was pissed off that he managed to have such an influence on the world she inhabited for so much longer than him. Angry at the fact that all these new feelings and experiences stemmed from this single person. Angry at their own confusion about all these things.

"We can fix this easily! I alone can beat those beasties up and restore the mana balance, no need to stay angry."

Angry at the fact that this man, who could overpower her with his pinky finger, keeps pretending to be scared of her wrath. Angry at the fact that she couldn't find a single trace of this duplicity in the man's aura when he is running before her scathing glare.

"Stop glaring at me like that, please! We can fix this in a thousand ways. You won't get in trouble with the big guys back at Flight mountain, 'kay?"

Angry that the man could indeed fix it easily, but still insists that he needed the help of her and the rest of the people he surrounds himself with.

Angry because the symbol of power that all on this world fear, the dragons, are like toy lizards to this man.

Angry at herself. Re-Haan stops in her tracks. She is angry at herself. Pausing all of the processes running through her mind, she assigns all thinking power to this idea. If everyone you meet is an asshole, you are the asshole. If everything you see makes you angry, you are the one causing that anger.

Each scenario and theory she throws at this problem gives her the same, painful feedback.

It's not them. It's her. She is angry at herself, for some reason.

Why though? She is an amazing dragon, one of the pinnacle beings. A beautiful monster, engineered and slapped together by some ascended upstart.

Ah, there it is. She never should have tasked Database with analysing her DNA, after all.

"Hey, Rhea?"

She even compared her own DNA to the mutated mess of a mana mutant. Her own DNA looked like a tangled knot of spaghetti in comparison.

"There was this amazing building back on the cultivation world. It's majesty was known to half the planet and all the big sects. Even mundane mortals continents away heard of its splendor. It stood on top of the tallest mountain around, its tip piercing the mesosphere. It looked like a palace for gods, its architectural perfection leaving a permanent mark on everyone who gaze upon its splendor."