Recovery from their battle took a while, with their full physical recovery hindered by how deep they'd dug into their spirits. It not only diverted some of the energy that their bodies would use, but with that aspect of themselves so raw none of them wao use any magic or powers, not even healing prayers. It hurt like trying to make torn muscles lift something heavy, but worse. So ihey went through cycles of sleepiing, and digging deeper into their stock of recovery potions.

  Once Moriko was feeling well enough to focus on transcribing, she passed on Mordecai's expnation of what had happened. [Mordecai made his camity dragons hard to kill, and able to fuel healing by eating. This corruption is a mutation of that power. The smallest piece that be alive, ption, and replication run amok. He thinks a camity dragon is sleeping somewhere beh us.]

  His expnation was more plicated than that, but Moriko didirely uand what he meant by the smallest pieces of a creature having uricted multiplication and growth, and trying to uand it well enough to pass it on was beyond her right now. Kazue's core seemed much more ied in the lesson than Moriko was, but her avatar was just going to have to wait until they got back to the duo learn all of that.

  Kazue shivered. "There's one of his war dragons sleepih us? I guess the person that brought us here is keeping the dragon asleep, but it's kind of scary."

  Princess Bridgette was focused on a different part of the message, and frowned before asking, "How does that work? I don't get how the regeion power leads to that thing that we fought."

  "Oh!" Kazue said, "I think I have this one. Um, okay, imagihat a rock fell on a leaf of grass that had a bug on it. Both the leaf and the grass get squished, but they have this curse. So the bug bits and the grass bits are both trying to grow again, only they are all mixed together and the bug is dead even if its bits are not, so they are all growing wild and peting with each other, only the growth isn't directed properly. Take that, and multiply that by everything living in an area, a what we saw. There were nerves and brains, but nothing coherent or long-sting enough to create a mind. It was just the driven bits of all the different things that used to be separate creatures and pnts. That is why its spirit was so weak for such a big creature."

  Huh. Moriko's little fox had learned more than Moriko had realized. She had seen how adorably ear Kazue had been when fog on Mordecai's lessons, but Moriko didn't do well with lectures. She preferred more physical teag methods. In more ways than one, she thought to herself with a smirk. Moriko snapped herself out of that thought to focus ba the versation at hand.

  "So the whole thing about finding our identity was to keep these smallest living bits leashed to the needs of our bodies, instead of doing their own thing?" Bridgette asked.

  Kazue nodded and replied, "Yeah, though that would only work for something like this. Sometimes the bits just break and do something like that," she paused in fusion before tinuing, "but I don't remember exactly how I know that. Or why I don't know more."

  Moriko wrote down, [Core?]

  "That's annoying but probably right," Kazue said, "a core knows way too much minutia to cram everything into a brain. Usually. I suspect our husband dearest has some trick up to get around that."

  "Not a lot more, I'm mostly experienced in refining the information I keep to be exactly what I need." Mordecai said, and Moriko shook her head at Kazue and then shrugged before holding her hand up in the 'little bit' gesture.

  "Only a little bit?" Kazue asked and then mused, "I guess even he has his limitations."

  "So," Bridgette said, "we're trapped in this cave, somewhere above the sleeping form of a powerful dragon suffering from corruption, and the dragon is beihere by someone else who we think is also a dragon. What is our pn."

  "Rest and recuperation," a mase voice cut in as the inner portion of the silvery dome around them flickered off. This gave them access to the rest of the mound that they had entered, but it looked to be little more than barreh and stohe image of the silver-haired man appeared in the ter of that space. "You have done well, and I have hope that you will be strong enough to take oask we ot do ourselves."

  Moriko had to fight for a moment to separate her emotions from the surge of anger from her spouses and found the thread of e that was all her own. She wra as she gred at the illusion before them, but was uo speak her mind.

  "You are an ass for not giving us better warning of what was waiting for us," Bridgette hissed at him.

  The man ined his head in aowledgment. "Your pint is legitimate, but we seek to fulfill a dream, and though we bear you no particur ill will, your safety es sed to us in pursuit of our selfish dream."

  Kazue had been watg him with a peculiar expression and now tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. "Dream?" she asked softly, and then said, "Oh!" Kazue poi the image. "You aren't an illusion, you aren't real! I mean, there is a real you, but you aren't even him. You are a dream fragment!"

  Moriko and Bridgette turo stare at her incredulously, and Kazue blushed. "Er, my magic touches on that sort of thing already. He didn't feel right for just an illusion. Though I don't think 'we' means him and his real self."

  "Correct," the man responded, "we both sleep beh you while I work on slowly undoing the worst aspects of her biology without inflig more suffering, and my plete self is irely aware of you. I have beeing a record of our iions so that my scious self will know what has happened wheually awaken again."

  Mordecai's voice whispered into Moriko's mind, "Tread carefully. He has created or teleported physical objects while oing as a limited dream fragment. Our shared dreams have involved drawing the ey of our minds into the realm of dreams, this is merely a piece of his mind maing in the physical world while he sleeps."

  That was rather terrifying. Moriko frowned and poi the illusionary man, theured at her panions and herself before shrugging with a curious expression.

  "What do I want with you? Hmm, maybe for this stage it may be best to expin first to let you prepare yourselves. I hope to have you save some of our children, though it will e at great risk to yourselves. We have eggs that I have put into stasis and they are alive, but they have been touched by the corruption. The three of you may be able to save three of them, if you are willing to put your lives at further risk, and this risk es with a potential be."

  A few things were starting to make more sense. Moriko was beginning to suspect that draic possessiveness could make them even more irrational about their offspring than most parents. That thought she aimed at Mordecai, mixed with affe as she metaphorically tweaked his nose. But their host had more to say.

  "They do not have a strong enough sense of self to survive hatg. At least, not without a strong, personal bond," his face twisted into a sour expression as he tinued, "such as a familiar's bond. You have proven strong enough to resist the corruption with little time to set yourself against it, and your sense of self should be even strohan before. If you are willing, I would have each of you attempt te a bond with one of our children, which will cause their egg to hatch."

  There was clear pain in his voice as he spoke softly, "If it works, they will still be ged by the experience. Your identities and affinities will influehem, and in many ways, they will be less than what they should have been. Still, as familiars, they would be more powerful than most, and they will be alive, and so long as they live, they grow and beore. We will take that. The other option," he gestured toward the exit of the mount, where they had fought the corrupted flesh before, "is uable."

  "And if we fail?" Bridgette asked.

  "You die." The ess with which he spoke made Moriko shiver. It wasly a threat, not when they had the option to not even try, but she was fairly certain he wouldn't let anyone who failed survive when his offspring did not. Perhaps if this was more than a fragment of a personality it would be different, but this limited self was not going to be able to witness one of his offspring die because of someone else's failure without shing out. Assuming the person attempting to make the bond survived the resulting corruption to begin with; it seemed quite likely that failing to overe the corruption of the hatg would kill them both anyway.

  "That's ly fair you know," Kazue said quietly. She'd clearly uood his meaning as well. "If someories their best, already risking themselves to even try, they shouldn't have to face a death sentence if they mao survive failing to begin with."

  Their host closed his eyes. "I know. But I ot be fair in this. So do not try if you do not have the vi." He shook his head and sighed before opening his eyes again. "I leave you to take your rest and recuperate - yes?"

  Moriko had raised her hand to get his attention and now poi him with one hand and at the ground with the other. She then raised both index fingers up and brought them together with an eyebrow raised questioningly.

  "Ah, a reasonable curiosity. I had previously elimiwo of Mordecai's creations, for her of them had been respoo any attempt at unication. She was able to respond, but she was not able to stop herself either and asked me to end her suffering. Her internal struggles slowed her down enough that I was able to force her down into the ground. She clearly was expeg death and was trying to not resist, but I did not want to snuff out a life that had shown such tenacity in fighting against her own violent urges. Thankfully, Mordecai had not thought to remove other aspects of biology in his drive to create war maes, aain instincts could be suborned in order to help her submit long enough for my power to encase us in a barrier. Life proceeded as it often does. I was thankfully able to detect the beginnings of corruption before they could develop too far, and put s in stasis. Time has passed, she is better but still far from where she should be, and now here we all are."

  Well, that was a lot to take in and Mordecai had a bit he wao say to the three of them after this versation was done, so Moriko simply gave a small bow of thanks.

  He nodded back before saying, "Rest, heal, decide. If all of you decide to leave, I will escort you out. Otherwise, I will isote those who decide to take on this risk and we will proceed." And with that, he was gone.

  The few days held some iing discussions, including with the cores. Moriko was still limited to writing, it seemed she'd dooo good a job at sealing her own wounds fette's healing fmes to have much impact, even oohough there were signs that over suffit time the muscle could be properly restored.

  Kazue made a slightly forced joke about looking forward to making sure Moriko's tongue was fully funal and Moriko made an appropriately rude gesture in her dire. Kazue smirked and said, "Yes, that is the idea." Bridgette shook her head at them and moved the versation on. Moriko gave Kazue a wink and a smile, she appreciated that her wife was trying to put on a brave face but she had also seen Kazue's stri expression when she'd realized how badly Moriko had been injured.

  The e of the discussion was that they were going to go forward with the dragon's pn. While testing them the way he had was callous, it also reflected his drive to find the best options for his children, and none of them could entirely fault him for that. Most importantly, the lives of is were at stake. While the idea of having a dragon hatg as a familiar was incredible, none of them cared enough about that factor.

  They had even sidered trying to undo the bond after resg the first set, but Mordecai had interjected when the idea was mentioned, "Don't even think about that. While some familiar binding rituals be casual, this one is going to require itment. Yoing to o put all of yourself into it. Also, I suspect that they o maintain the bond for quite a while anyway. Even with draic egos, their sense of self will still ime to develop and this corruption is probably rooted deeply."

  Mordecai had previously expressed how much he did not want them taking this risk, but he also khe decision was theirs to make, so he had not bebored the point once his thoughts had been expressed. Kazue's core wasn't incredibly thrilled with Moriko taking this risk either, but ohe decision was made both cores had put all their effort into being supportive instead.

  There wasn't a lot they could do beyoional support, but they were doing what they could. Ohey were as ready as they could get, the three women packed up their gear to be ready. They didn't expect to be staying long after the bonds were made, and that was the only mihey were allowing themselves right now.

  Zagaroth