Owen did not leave the Tower of Royals for seven days.
The chamber adapted to his needs. Combat arenas ford when he wanted to test his new power. Training dummies appeared and dissolved. The healing stream remained constant, allowing him to recover between sessions.
He learned to layer temporal distortions. To fold space without losing track of causality. To access the hybrid form’s full capabilities without the bleeding golden light that had characterized the forced transformation.
By day four, he could create a temporal pocket that aged matter at twenty tis normal speed.
By day six, he could delay causality across a thirty-ter radius.
By day seven, he understood the limits of his Sovereignties when rged with Architect essence. The power was imnse, but it burned through his CE reserves catastrophically. A full-power temporal distortion could drain him in seconds.
He erged from the Tower on the morning of day eight, physically stable but ntally exhausted.
---
Gorvax did not wait for Owen to fully acclimate.
The Sower had spent the week preparing. Gathering supplies. Making arrangents. By the ti Owen erged, Gorvax had assembled Yalira, Odessa, and Alfred at the dinsional portal chamber.
The portals themselves were impressive — standing gates of pure energy that shimred with multidinsional geotry. Owen had created them before leaving for the cosmos, permanent doorways that allowed transit between Drak’thar and Earth. They required no incantation to use. No special knowledge. Simply a step through.
"We are leaving," Gorvax said without preamble. "For Earth. Nexus Pri City. We need cloaking technology."
"How long," Odessa asked.
"Two days. Three at most."
Yalira’s tail flicked. "The Tribunal will move while we’re gone."
"They will move regardless. At least this way, we buy ti." Gorvax gestured toward the portal. "Odessa, you know the human nad Diane Pikewell. The blacksmith. We need her help."
Odessa nodded imdiately. "Gate Zero. I can get us an audience."
They stepped through the portal.
The transition was instantaneous. The floating islands of Drak’thar disappeared. The two suns vanished. In their place ca the grey sky of Earth, the sll of rain and industrial machinery, the sound of a city that had learned to exist alongside hunters and magic.
Nexus Pri. The largest city in the post-System world.
---
The Guild headquarters rose from the city center like a tallic fortress.
Forges operated visibly behind transparent crystal walls. Artisans worked on weapons, armor, artifacts. The craftsmanship was visible even from the street. Every piece that Gate Zero produced was exceptional.
Diane Pikewell was in her workshop.
She looked no older than twenty-five, with platinum blonde hair that curled and fell across her chest. She wore a crop top that left her midriff bare and baggy cargo pants cinched at the waist. Her eyes carried the gleam of a weapon fanatic: sharp, assessing, and just slightly unhinged whenever she talked about forging artifacts.
Her grey eyes were sharp and focused on the weapon she was forging then She looked up the mont they entered.
"Odessa," she said, recognition imdiate. "It’s been a while."
"Diane," Odessa responded. "I need a favor. A big one."
Diane set down her hamr and approached. Her gaze flicked to Gorvax, Yalira, and Alfred, assessing each of them in seconds.
"You’ve got the look of soone who just escaped sothing," Diane observed. "Friends of yours?"
"Associates. And this is Gorvax. He needs your help with sothing that requires your specific expertise."
Diane’s expression shifted to business mode. "I’m listening."
Gorvax stepped forward. "I need cloaking devices. Advanced ones. Capable of masking a large area’s dinsional signature from detection systems."
Diane’s eyebrows rose.
"That is not a small request."
"I am aware. How long would such a device take to create?"
"Masking a large area’s signature? That requires understanding of spatial folding, dinsional shifting, and resonance patterns all working in concert. It would take months to design and weeks to manufacture, even with my best craftspeople."
"We have three days," Gorvax said.
Diane crossed her arms. "That’s not possible."
"Is it possible if the designs already exist," Gorvax asked. "If soone had already mapped the dinsional structure of the location we need to mask?"
Diane was quiet for a mont. Then she walked to a shelf and retrieved a small crystalline object. It pulsed faintly with internal light.
"Before modern infrastructure, prototype cloaking arrays existed. Designed to mask dinsional signatures." She turned the crystal over in her hands. "I’ve studied them. Kept the designs for personal interest. But creating one from scratch, even with the designs, takes ti."
"What if the dinsional signature is already available," Gorvax said. "What if we can provide the exact harmonic frequency that needs to be masked."
Diane’s eyes narrowed. "Then it becos a calibration problem instead of a design problem. Calibration I can do in a day. Maybe less."
"Then we have an agreent."
Diane nodded once. "But I need to know what I’m working on. What kind of signature am I masking. What are the stakes."
Gorvax considered his answer carefully. "A location that needs to remain hidden from people who are looking for it. That is all you need to know."
"Fair enough." Diane turned to her craftspeople and issued orders in rapid succession. Within minutes, the entire forge was focused on a single task: creating cloaking arrays.
She worked alongside her team, hands moving with precision. After nearly an hour of intense labor, she approached Gorvax with the first completed unit.
"It will need to be activated at the location," she said. "Place it at a central point. It will broadcast a false signature outward in a radius determined by its power setting. The farther you want coverage, the more power it requires."
"How far can this one reach," Gorvax asked, examining the device.
"Distance of about fifty kiloters, if the location has any natural anchors." Diane handed it to him. "But it won’t hold forever. Nothing holds forever against determined scanning. But it will buy you ti."
"That is all we need," Gorvax said.
---
Yuki felt the first contraction at midday.
She was in the gardens, speaking with Uru about how to prepare for the child’s arrival, when the pain hit. Not sudden. Gradual. Building. She recognized it imdiately.
Her water broke twenty minutes later.
"Get to the Palace," she said to Uru. "Now."
Uru, despite being a small child form, understood urgency. The primordial sli imdiately shifted into sothing faster, sothing more capable of movent. She ran toward where the five dragon hatchlings were resting in their common chamber.
Leah was with them.
The lion-folk warrior saw Uru arrive and registered the urgency imdiately.
"Hatchlings," Leah commanded. "Yuki is in labor. We fly to the Palace. Now."
The response was imdiate.
Hatchling #1 (erald green) was the fastest to respond. She moved with eager excitent, already understanding this was important. Her natural affinity caused vines to bloom in rapid growth as she ran, the plants reacting to her emotional state.
Hatchling #2 (polished black) moved silently, slipping between shadows even in the bright daylight of Drak’thar’s gardens. Watchful. Present without being obvious.
Hatchling #3 (brilliant gold) sparked with electricity as it scrambled toward Leah, reckless energy barely contained. It nearly knocked over a decorative fountain in its excitent.
Hatchling #4 (pale blue/silver) moved slower but with purpose, the air around it cooling noticeably as it approached. It had been sleeping and moved with the careful deliberation of sothing waking.
Hatchling #5 (black with gold veins) observed the chaos with the calm awareness of sothing that understood exactly what was about to happen. It said nothing. Simply moved into position alongside Leah.
Azure descended from her perch on one of the upper spires.
The greater dragonkin was massive in her Dragon form, her crystalline eyes bright with awareness. She understood the significance of this mont. She understood that Yuki’s child was about to enter the world, and that the child was important in ways that extended beyond simple birth.
"Formation," Leah commanded. "Hatchlings in a carrying pattern. Azure, you take Yuki directly. We fly to the Palace. Full speed."
They took flight.
Yuki was rushed up onto Azure’s back, the greater dragonkin’s form providing stability even as the creature accelerated toward the Palace. The five hatchlings surrounded them in a protective formation, their varied affinities creating a strange display. Lightning sparked around Hatchling #3. Ice crystals drifted from Hatchling #4. Vines grew in spiraling patterns from Hatchling #1’s passage through the air.
They reached the Palace in minutes.
Human hunters which were Healers were waiting. Word had already spread through from Leah and Solhart had brought with him his group from nexus pri through the portals.
The Dragon King’s child was about to be born.
---
Gorvax felt it through the dinsional connection between Earth and Drak’thar.
A pulse. A surge of cosmic energy. The signature of a birth about to occur.
He did not wait for all the cloaking arrays to finish manufacturing. He left Diane instructions for the remaining units and activated the dinsional portal imdiately.
Yalira, Odessa, and Alfred followed without question.
The portal flared. They stepped through.
They erged directly into chaos.
The Palace was alive with activity. Healers moving with purpose, rushing with supplies. The five dragon hatchlings pacing outside the chamber where Yuki was laboring. Azure standing guard, her crystalline eyes fixed on the doorway.
Gorvax registered the situation in seconds, his eyes landing on Solhart.
"How long," he asked Solhart.
"She arrived an hour ago. Labor is progressing. The child is ready to co."
Gorvax nodded once and moved into the Palace. Yalira, Odessa, and Alfred followed. They took positions where they could observe without interfering. Leah was already inside with Yuki, providing support, her lion-folk strength useful for holding Yuki’s hand when the contractions beca intense.
The labor continued.
---
Inside the Tower of Royals, Owen was ditating.
He had been cycling through his Sovereignties, understanding their rged capabilities, preparing for whatever response the cosmos would bring to his existence.
Then he felt it.
Not a sound. Not a visual. An energy pulse that ca from Drak’thar’s core. From the Palace. From the connection between his bloodline and sothing new.
His child.
The mont was unmistakable. Cosmic energy surging. A new signature erging into the world. A being that carried pieces of Owen’s essence, pieces of Yuki’s strength, and sothing entirely original.
Owen’s eyes snapped open.
He stood, moving toward the Tower’s exit with the specific focus of soone who understood exactly what was happening and understood that he needed to be present for it.
The Tower’s doors opened before he reached them.
Golden light flooded out as Owen stepped into Drak’thar’s daylight. His hybrid form was fully visible now. Integrated. Powerful. The Architect essence settling into his dragon biology like it had always belonged there.
He flew toward the Palace.
The five hatchlings sensed his approach and turned to look at him. Hatchling #5 (black with gold veins) was the first to acknowledge him, its calm observant eyes tracking his descent.
"Father..." it said simply.
Owen landed before the Palace entrance.
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