I Became Part of the Dragon's Hoard-Chapter 74: To Be

The dragon girl in front of them looked at Bery. "Is something about my appearance astounding to you?"

Bery flinched, not expecting to be regarded by the girl first. The kitten shook her head, but Valerie was the one to answer.

"Do not worry about my kitten. She is naturally curious. You have given me a letter, and I've come. There better be a good reason."

Qomrephe's grin widened, and she gestured towards the small white cabin behind her. "First, come inside. It's been a while since I have seen you."

Valerie grumbled and grabbed her kitten's hand. The two of them followed the white dragoness inside of her own house.

Bery couldn't help gasping when they crossed the open lattice. For one, the inside was much larger than the outside. On the inside, the place was like a frozen mansion. A white chandelier hung over head, appearing as several ice crystals. On either side of the foyer, there were two frozen staircases.

The kitten noticed that items were not stuck to the walls like a normal house. Instead, they hung suspended in the air by some kind of magic a couple of inches from the walls. Candles floated away from the walls as light sources.

Qomrephe clapped one time, and the scenery shifted.

Bery felt dizzy by the rapid change in front of her, and they somehow ended up in a frosted room with an ice table. Chairs sat around it made of the same material.

Qomrephe whizzed forwards, and blades of ice appeared under her shoes. She skated on the ice beneath her and summoned a kettle and ice glasses in her other hand.

The scene reminded the kitten of her most recent visit to the empress's castle, and Qomrephe performed yet in a different fashion. The dragoness threw the cups in the air, and she caught them with her white tail. She used the tail to balance them while she poured her own blend of tea.

Bery couldn't help voicing her thoughts out loud to Valerie. "Do all people of high stature do this greeting when you meet them?"

The dragoness shrugged. "Rephe has always done this."

Qomrephe finished her dance and sat on the ice seat, gesturing to the two other seats next to the table.

Bery looked at the chair with a wry smile, not really knowing how comfortable it would be to sit on a piece of ice.

The white dragon saw her contemplation and raised her glass in the air. "I guess this scenery is not the best. A change of place is in order."

She poured blue liquid from the cup onto the floor, and the scenery beneath them started to change in short order. This change was not as rapid to Bery as the one before, but it still startled the kitten. She watched blades of grass form where the white dragon poured the liquid, and they spread out all around them.

Trees with pink leaves formed, and the place grew to look like a warm spring. The table turned into a white gazebo, and the dragoness sat on the wooden bench.

Qomrephe grinned from all of the kitten's reactions. "Your lover is much less boring than you are, Val."

"Of course she is. However, you are the truly strange one if I had to say. You are enigmatic, yet you persist on balance. That is a contradiction."

The white dragon chuckled as the two sat across from her on a the bench. She handed them their glasses of drink.

Bery looked down, not even noticing that the cup had changed as well. What was once an ice cup was now a warm white, wooden cup. The kitten took a drink from it, but she got something different than she expected. She'd thought it would be tea, yet it had a distinct berry flavor.

The white dragon finally looked at Valerie and answered her. "It is not a contradiction. Time sustains balance, but time is enigmatic. Thus is the nature of my being. One might call this suspended animation."

Valerie took a sip of her own berry-flavored juice. "As always, you are still making this stuff and still talking like that."

"I have changed in many ways, though. Much like you have. This Kanai'n, for example. You would not have held such a person in company centuries ago."

Valerie frowned and glared at the white dragon. "Don't call her whatever you please. She is named Bery, and she is to be respected."

Rephe laughed at Valerie's reaction. "So she does have a name. No offense was meant to be made. In fact, I consider this a good thing. Yes, it is monumental. Had you still been the exact same person, then this occasion would be worse."

"Had I still been the same person, I likely would not have come here."

"And that is why it would have been unfortunate. Though, time moves in my favor. As it always does."

Valerie rolled her eyes patted her kitten's head. "Don't let her words get to you. She only speaks like this because she is…" 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Rephe cut the other dragoness off by raising her hand. "It is far too early for my insecurity to come to light. Rather, let's discuss other things."

"Yes, like why you've ordered me here."

"Is it so wrong to want to see an old friend after so long?"

Valerie shook her head. "That is never the reason. How many times had you dragged me from my slumber?"

"I wouldn't have to drag you from your slumber if you'd visit me once in a while. The issue is the waves of your most recent actions."

"My most recent actions?"

Qomrephe sighed. "You've acted uncharacteristically, but that is not the point. A new thread has already been woven into the snows of time. The future has become less predictable. Did you not kill the one who was said to be the ruler of the skies?"

"He was no ruler of the skies. It was more like he pretended to be a storm. It's no different than children playing with sticks."

"Except, we don't kill those children playing with sticks."

Valerie sighed. "Don't take issue with my comparison. He was the one who would have brought ruination. It would have been worse if I let this fester. The consequences would have been etched into history. Surely there is a point to be made, no? Are you going to tell me that my waves had awoken some ancient evil? And why do you insist on spying? Don't you know it's bad for people's privacy?"

Qomrephe's face turned stern. "Spying is a bad way to call it. I am looking after my old friends, same as how I look after Malkavis."

"And what about that old friend at the bottom of the mountain? Did you see that interaction too?"

The white dragon nodded. "It is in my nature to gaze. As for your other questions, there is a point. It's quite a concerning one."

Valerie stopped and put her cup down on the bench next to her, raising an eyebrow, and crossing her arms.

Qomrephe continued. "Surely, killing those two dragons was no small thing, and you should watch your back. However, that is much smaller than the uncertainty of something else. The one that you call Yuri."

Bery reacted to the name of her robot, wiggling her ears. "What about Yuri? Is there something we should be worried about?"

"She does not exist within the constrains of magic. I have no idea how she crossed the veil in the first place, yet she has now come to exist within magic. The future has become even more uncertain. If she can cross the veil, what is stopping others?"

"Veil?"

Qomrephe nodded. "Such an anomalous thing shouldn't be possible. To exist without magic… I have no idea how that could happen. Imagine existing without a heartbeat."

Bery shrugged. "Golems already don't have hearts."

"Yet they have cores. Everything in this world has a heart, even magic itself. The heart is desire."

"Yuri has plenty of desires."

"And that's why it's so strange." Rephe looked to Valerie. "Earlier you called me enigmatic, but Yuri is the truly enigmatic one. Her existence opened up new questions, and it has broken a tenet of existence. How did you never question the existence of something so fantastical?"

Valerie shrugged. "She has already existed for a long time. Why did you never ask me about this before?"

"I had no idea before. This is the problem that you have. I never learn of things until they're too late. This is why I 'spy' on you. If you had come to visit me earlier, I would have known."

Valerie huffed and crossed her arms, blowing a ring of smoke from her mouth. "It doesn't matter that much anyways, does it? She told us she came from a world that it is normal to be without magic."

Rephe's eyes widened. "What? How is that… How can being exist without magic?"