"There, there, Little One." Orion hugged her. "I said if sothing happens to us. I'm still alive and have no intention of giving up without a fight."
"Always a daddy's girl." Jirni sighed, triggering a sudden tackle.
"Don't die, Mom. Please!" Quylla sobbed.
"I- You-" There were few things on Mogar Jirni Ernas couldn't handle, and the desperate cries of her daughter were one of them. "There, there?"
She gently patted Quylla's shoulder, cursing herself when the bawling only grew louder.
"Friya, this is all your fault! You're upsetting your sister!" Pushed with her back against the wall, Jirni tried with misdirection.
"How is this my fault?" Friya replied. "I didn't say anything. It's-"
She wanted nothing more than escape the crossfire, but she knew that blaming Orion would only pour oil on the fire.
"I an, I'm sorry, Quylla."
"You're sorry about what?" Quylla sniffled.
"Anything you want. Just stop crying!"
"Does this happen often, or is this just my luck?" Ajatar the Drake asked.
"I have three pregnant won in my house and a bunch of children." Lith replied. "What do you think?"
"Sa old, sa old, then." Ajatar had assud a humanoid, clothed form.
He looked like an anthropomorphic lizard as tall as Lith and covered with sapphire scales. Ajatar wore a thick woolen sweater rolled up to his elbows, warm padded trousers and shoes.
Drakes suffered from cold less than Hydras, but shared the dislike for low temperatures that united all descendants of Leegaain. It was the reason he had no tail in that form.
"What can I do for you, Ajatar?" Lith asked. "Do you need a place to stay as well?"
"Gods, no." The Drake pushed his gold-rimd glasses up his snout. "My research needs peace and quiet. Here I can't hear myself think. Let's go sowhere more private."
Lith brought Ajatar to his study and offered him a chair.
"Much better." The Drake sighed in relief when the door closed and shut off all the noise that so many families living together under the sa roof produced. "As you can imagine, I need your help.
"Let talk until the end before answering because I'm not going to take much of your ti or energy. It would be more correct to say that I need your support."
Then Ajatar explained the problems that Fyrwal was likely to face even as an interim Council representative and the many grudges that too many Awakened bloodlines harbored against the Hydras.
"Yours is a good plan." Lith pondered. "If you succeed in becoming a Dragon, no one will be able to criticize Fyrwal's choice to keep Ufyl alive. It will turn her political enemies into willing allies and clear her path to the seat of representative.
"Even better, everyone will be so eager to adapt the Hydra technique to their bloodline that they won't have the energy or will to argue with Fyrwal's orders. What I don't understand is what you need my help for."
'If tid properly, Ajatar becoming a Dragon would do wonders for as well.' Lith thought. 'Lots of mbers of the Council would lose interest in my Indech form and pester him, instead.
'Combined with my Indech, it should also drive all Lesser Divine Beasts away from ln. Why beco a Upyr hybrid when you can beco a true Divine Beast and gain your unique powers?'
"As I told you, I can't afford the luxury of a long research with months of trial and error to fix all the details to ensure my survival." Ajatar replied. "Even if Narchat disappears for that long, the Council election can't wait.
"At the sa ti, however, I don't want to rely on your tower. For this to have any aning, I must do it myself. It's not just a matter of pride, but also to be able to explain step by step what I did and how I got there.
"Otherwise, even if I faked it out for the Council, I wouldn't be able to replicate the procedure for anyone else unless you share with the blueprints of the Infirmary and those of its enchantnts."
"That's off the table." Lith shook his head.
"Don't worry, as a fellow Forgemaster, I would never ask Ruler nadion to share a piece of her opus with ." Ajatar said. "Yet I don't plan to die either, so here's my idea.
"You make space for my gene-tank in your tower, and I work there. Once I think I'm ready, we take a test run in the Infirmary. I don't want you to tell what's wrong, only if my data and predictions are accurate.
"If not, I'll go back to the drawing board and solve the issues myself. Rinse and repeat until, I hope, I have everything figured out."
"It should work." Lith pondered. "The Infirmary won't show you the way, it will just save you ti by pointing out the flaws in your current design. It's the sa thing you could do in your lab, just faster because you can skip all the step-by-step tests."
"Exactly." Ajatar took his glasses off, rubbing his snout in frustration for his last plea. "Also, I hope to be wrong, but I need sothing else from you."
"Which is?"
"Company." The Drake sighed. "As my experint progresses, I'll spend more and more ti in a quasi-Dragon state before reverting into a Drake and going back to work on the next bottleneck.
"There's a high chance that after every partial transformation, my ntal health will degrade due to Dragon Greed, and without soone keeping an eye on , I might do sothing reckless, stupid, or plain insane."
"I don't know." Lith massaged his neck. "I have a lot of things to do in preparation for a big reveal of my own."
"I'm not asking for you or any of your friends to be my caregiver." Ajatar replied. "Soone who knows about your tower and has a communication amulet will do. I've already made arrangents with Faluel.
"She'll co and stop the mont she receives a call, but soone has to make it, and I can't trust myself. I'd not ask you this if I could bring along soone I know and trust.
"Yet that would require revealing the existence of the tower to an outsider you don't trust."
"And that's sothing I would never allow." Lith pondered. "I want to help you, but finding soone who fits both your and our requirents won't be easy."
"Actually, it is." Solus said. "If all you need is company and an amulet, I know a lot of people who fit your criteria."
"You do?" Lith and Ajatar asked in unison, exchanging a quick glance in disbelief.
"Yes, and so do you, silly." Solus chuckled. "Aran, Leria, the triplets, and even Ryman's children are perfect for the job. They'll love spending ti with Ajatar if he teaches them a bit of magic.
"On top of that, the noise they make will drive him crazy and keep the crazy from Dragon Greed at bay."
"That sounds like a nightmare." The thought of human children was enough to make Ajatar's eyes twitch in annoyance.
"That sounds like a solution." Lith replied. "The kids are perfect. They have my trust, know about the tower, and have everyone I know on speed dial. Take it or leave it, Ajatar."
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