The manticore still seemed to have a speed advantage, but I used Bolster on my wings, reinforcing and enhancing them. While Lyris wasn’t fast enough to chase this thing, I was. Across the treetops and toward the mountain it flew with me following in fast pursuit, gaining on it.
The manticore, or Lunch as I had now decided to call it, noticed me gaining behind it with a growing hunger in my eyes. I could see a look of panic cross its face before it turned to face forward once more and focus on escape. Good. I could practically taste its fear. I pushed more mana into my wings and with a final burst of speed I got in close and made contact with it, straddling its back like I was riding a horse. I gripped my legs around it, digging my toe claws into its ribs before I began brutally attacking its wings with my own claws.
The beast roared with pain as its wings suddenly became unable to adequately control its flight at this speed, and I rode it as it hurtled toward the ground. I kind of wished I had a cowboy hat right now so I could wave it around in the air like that guy riding the bomb in Dr. Strangelove.
However, unlike the guy in the movie, I had an exit strategy. Once we got near enough to the ground that I could be sure the manticore couldn’t pull out of the dive with its injured wings, I unfurled my own wings like a parachute, Bolstering them again to safely pull me out of the dive that the manticore was doomed to complete.
I saw it crash into a rock face moments later, a cloud of sediment erupting out of the impact site. I swooped in and landed to inspect the crater, and saw it struggling, badly injured and barely able to move, but still alive. I could respect its tenacity, but I was getting a bit annoyed about it by now. I moved towards it, considering whether I should kill it mercifully or draw this out further.
Claim it,came a voice unbidden into my mind. Not Lyris, but Zarexanya.
“Eh? As a familiar? Why, when I have you?”
Your first lesson in being a dragon, my child, is that all things in this world belong to you. Do not discard them so easily. The manticore flies swiftly, and its venom may have use.
“Okay. Fair enough.”
I walked right up to the manticore and it drew back, fearing for its life. I grabbed it by the scruff of its neck and initiated the binding, pouring mana into it.
I was not in the black void this time, but a vast volcanic chamber, surrounded by gold. The heat didn’t bother me. This was all just a mental construct, I knew, but I couldn’t help but scoop some of the gold coins up in my scaled claw and admire them. Zarexanya lounged on the pile nearby, smirking approvingly at my greed. If this was her hoard, and it was real, that meant it was now my hoard, to be found and claimed. But first, things to attend.
The manticore sat huddled in a clear spot surrounded by the hoard, terrified at what was happening. “Aha, there you are,” I said. “Good fight, but now you’ll serve me.”
From her lounging spot, Zarexanya added, “We demand total surrender and submission. Anything less, and you will be consumed.”
The manticore quickly nodded. “Agree,” it said.
I was back out in reality again, and could feel the extra spirit within me. The manticore’s physical form was gone, and all that was left was a square pink crystal of some kind with intriguing facets sitting where it had been. Maybe it had been tangled in its mane? It was quite pretty and shined with magical energy.
I shoved it into my pocket. My treasure. The start of my hoard.
Flying back toward the barrier gate, I met Lyris flying my way and hovered. She got an eyeful of my sublime new body and I could see and feel her appreciation and desire for it, but she managed to bring herself back to the topic at hand.
”What of the manticore?”
”I crashed it into a rock. Gone now.”
She looked at me quizzically, wondering what that could imply. I smirked and left it to her imagination, having more important things on my mind.
”Let’s head back, darling. I’d like to see if I can find a sigil or potion that will let me put an egg in you before tonight.”
I continued my flight back to the gate. Lyris’s eyes went wide as she processed that statement, then she followed along behind me. But, I noted, she didn’t argue the point.
Sable and Mother were waiting just inside the barrier gate. Mother seemed to be using a sigil to repair her broom handle while she discussed something with Sable, but they stopped as we approached. I landed proudly before them and posed victoriously, while Lyris landed a few paces away.
”Haha, did you see that? I dominated that simpleton.”
Sable spoke up, giving me an unreadable look. “Yeah, I saw it through your eyes. That was… pretty brutal.”
”It was indeed! This new form is quite amazing, I believe I’ll be staying this way permanently.”
Sable and mother exchanged worried looks.
“Morgan, can I see that crystal the manticore dropped?”
”What? Certainly not. My treasure is my treasure.”
She paused, clearly unsure of how to handle me at my best.
”Um, Morgan, you used a lot of mana in that fight powering your cool new dragon abilities, right?”
”Yes, but I feel exquisite, never better! I could do this all day!”
To emphasize the point, I blew dragonfire into the air overhead.
Sable nodded. “Okay, that should do it.”
”Do what?”
“Drop your mana reserves to critical levels.”
I blinked in confusion. I remembered that my mana capacity was something that I could, and should, consciously evaluate from time to time. Doing so, I noticed I was running on fumes. I started to feel exhaustion set in. I staggered around, patting my belt to see if I had any more mana potions left, but I had none. I’d used them all up binding Zarexanya. A deep sense of sleepiness crept in, and I sat down on the ground as the others watched.
“Just a quick nap, then…”
Darkness took me.
I woke up groggily some time later. As I was starting to become somewhat accustomed to, I found myself curled up on someone’s lap. I was a cat once again, and looking up, I was startled to find that it was my mother’s lap. We were back indoors, in the living room, and Sable and Lyris were seated on opposite sides next to us. She noticed my movement and petted me.
“Morgan? Is that really you?”
“Yeah mom. Ugh, what happened?”
Sable answered, “I believe I made a… miscalculation. It seems like that dragon you bound isn’t exactly a familiar in your service in the normal sense. Instead, she’s bound to you in the same way Luna is. When you summon her, she manifests in your own body just like Luna’s spirit normally does.”
Mom seemed like she had something to say about that, but she held her tongue.
I went over the events of the manticore fight in my mind as I shifted my body back to my ‘normal’ catgirl form. I tried to get up, but Mom seemed to want to hold me there on her lap for the moment, so I relented. I kind of missed this feeling, even if I’d physically outgrown sitting on her lap long ago. But more importantly, right, the thing with the dragon.
“Oh, uh,… yeah, that did happen, and… I was different,” I said, feeling my hair. My dragon form’s long curls had gone away now that I was a catgirl again, but I was pretty sure it was still a little longer than this morning. Maybe I should grow it out more?
Lyris chimed in, “Yes, over our marriage bond it seemed like you were still you, but a different you.”
“Uh, I may have said some things that were very inappropriate.”
Lyris blushed and smiled. “Oh, I didn’t mind…”
I recalled mentioning something about putting an egg in her. She was intoit?
Mom spoke up while hugging me. “Morgan, I don’t want you to use that dragon form again any time soon. Not unless it’s a dire emergency.”
I glanced over at Lyris. While I had some concerns about dragon-me, the fact that she seemed into it made me question this advice somewhat. “But… well, I guess I was different, but was it that bad?”
Sable leaned over and started petting my ears, while mom gave her a slight glare. “Well, when I changed you, I worked with Luna to ensure that your mental changes were as minimally invasive as possible. While you have some cat instincts, you’re as close to your original self as possible, personality-wise. But your dragon spirit…”
“Zarexanya.”
“Right, Zarexanya. The normal familiar binding process didn’t have the guard rails that I built in with Luna’s binding since it wasn’t intended for that. She has a much stronger will than you, so the result is basically her personality overriding your own, almost entirely.”
I tensed up from being told I’d basically had my personality hijacked by a dragon spirit that was still inside me. “She was controlling me?”
“Not exactly. When a familiar spirit manifests in you, it’s still you as far as identity and memories go, just with a personality adjustment. In this case, a drastic one. You were acting… well, like you were an absolute boss bitch who could blow fire, punch monsters, and nobody else mattered.”
Yeah, that about summed it up.
Lyris nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, you were like… well, like the queen going to battle.”
I had to assume she meant the elf queen of whatever country she lived in.
“Is that a… good thing to you?”
Lyris smiled supportively. “I like you as you are, but it was nice to see you so… assertive for a change.”
I rubbed my temples as I reviewed the things I’d said. That form and personality definitely came with a major power boost, and a perhaps well-deserved confidence boost, but at what cost? Myself? I was turning red just thinking about some of the things that version of me said, particularly to Lyris.
Sable switched to petting my tail and gave her own opinion on the matter. “While I agree that side of you was quite… uh, interesting, like your mom says, I think it’s probably best not to use it unless you really need to. There are healthier ways to explore being more assertive. Dragons are vain creatures, and that version of you wanted to stay in the form permanently.”
My eyes widened as I recalled that particular proclamation.
“The only reason you’ve come to your senses is that you blew all your mana during the fight. If you hadn’t, or had some mana potions on hand, you might really have stayed that way unless we somehow pulled you back. And this will only get more likely as your mana capacity naturally improves.”
“So what do I do about it?”
“Well for now you just don’t use that form except in a dire emergency. I’ll look into finding some way to limit the extent a familiar spirit can influence you, but otherwise all you can really do about it is work on improving your willpower. You managed to resist the effects of your mom’s Howl spell when you dueled her earlier, so I think you probably have some decent willpower to start with. It’s just not dragon level.”
“Okay, I guess I can look into improving my… ‘willpower’ somehow. Isn’t there anything else that can be done?”
“I suppose I could re-enable some of your failsafes.”
Mom looked startled by that suggestion and cut in, sounding somewhat incredulous. “You mean you didn’t include the normal failsafes?”
Sable shook her head. “No. I didn’t think I needed to. I left the ability to calm her in case she reacted… poorly when she first woke up. But that doesn’t actually prevent her from taking any action, it just feels a bit like it. No, I took out the obedience controls, the safety restrictions, really anything that would restrict her free will.”
Mom looked taken aback. “You really bound a human as your familiar and didn’t even prevent her from attacking you?”
“Nah. I might be a ‘perverse’ Ward but I like to think of myself as a bit progressive in that regard. If Morgan feels the need to fight me, that's her choice. I’d win, though. Though… I don’t know if I could beat her dragon form, and that could be a problem for everyone involved.”
I looked at her, having a better appreciation now for the things she could have done to me, but chose not to. “So, you’re saying you could put those back to let me use my dragon form with some guard rails?”
“It’s not ideal, but yeah, I could. I won’t do it unless you personally ask me to, though. It’s your call, but submitting yourself to the will of another and just… trusting they have your best interests in mind is a big step. I don’t recommend it, personally.”
She was right, that was a pretty weighty decision. If I asked her to add those restrictions and she decided she liked them there, I wouldn’t be able to do much of anything about it.
“I’ll keep it under consideration,” I said, noting some mixed feelings I couldn’t really read from Lyris. Concern? Envy? I wasn’t quite sure, but I imagine it stemmed from her own situation with her master.
Mom’s expression softened and she addressed Sable. “It seems I owe you an apology. I came out here ready to… to seriously mess you up because I thought you’d enslaved my son, but you’ve really just empowered my daughter in a way I never could, haven’t you?”
Sable smiled warmly. “Apology accepted. And I understand your feelings about Wards, if I heard my mom had bound Morgan, I’d rush off to save her too.”
Mom shifted my position in her lap so that she could see my face. “And Morgan, I owe you an apology, too. A lot of apologies. For blindly following tradition. For not supporting your transition. It’s so obvious now, all the signs-”
“Mom, I’m not trans, this is just magic,” I interrupted, almost automatically defensive.
Mom raised an eyebrow and shared a look with Sable, who shrugged awkwardly and looked away. Across the link, I thought I could feel something like sympathy from Lyris.
“So, all those times you wanted to come to girls’ nights were…”
“I… I was just lonely, we stopped hanging out like we used to. Though, I guess ‘girls’ nights’ and ‘clothes shopping’ and ‘manicure dates’ were just a cover for Sabrina’s witch training, huh?”
“Mostly, yes, though we often did those things too. I thought I needed to use things boys wouldn’t be interested in for that. Witches need a lot of training in their formative years, and I just… felt overwhelmed, having a smart, curious son around the house to try to keep in the dark while training your sister. I didn’t want to do what my parents did to my brother.”
“I have an uncle? How come I’ve never met him?” I asked.
“They sent him off to boarding school. He distanced himself from the family after that. I guess that’s what they wanted. I didn’t want things to turn out like that for us, but I guess I fucked up in my own special way too, huh?”
There was an awkward silence. Yeah, she’d fucked up, but after hearing how things could have gone worse I didn’t really want to call her out on it just now, and I wasn’t sure how to proceed.
Sable broke the silence with an awkward chuckle, looking desperately uncomfortable. “Well, anyway, uh, new topic? The manticore dropped something when it dissipated, and your dragon self wanted to hoard it. Can I see it?”
While the segue seemed a bit forced, I was glad for the change in subject for now, and for the reminder about the shiny treasure in my pocket. I fished it out and gave it a close look. It was a square, pink, precision-cut crystal, and focusing my cat eyes on it, it seemed to have multitudes of almost imperceptible lines etched into its surface. Mom looked over my shoulder at it and I felt her body tense up as she held me.
“Morgan, you said the manticore had that?”
“Yeah mom, I think it must have been tangled in its mane, or maybe it swallowed it?”
“Sable… may I use your contract printer? I need to print some magic NDAs for you.”
I looked at her curiously. “Why?”
“That’s a prototype of my company’s new hardware.”