Kire sat on a stool, awkwardly undergoing the mages ridiculous requests with as much patience as he could manage.
"Open your mouth."
"Aaaaaah." Kire complied, only to have the mage shove his hands into Kire's mouth and feel up his teeth and push his tongue around, taking a look inside.
'This is SO uncomfortable!'
"Not only the first awakened human to never learn to manipulate all elements first, but has no knowledge of how to even manipulate outside mana or create actual spells."
The mage sighed to himself.
"Well you seem to have taken on a few... features of some other race. Working theory is that you're a hybrid of human and some VERY powerful magic beast. One so strong you inherited it's magic, and now you've become closer to a hybrid form after fusion with that magic, because that magic belongs to that other race."
Kire frowned. "Gwat?"
The mage removes his hands from his mouth and has an exasperated expression.
"When one pulls in world energy, it changes in nature to become mana. However no two individuals have identical mana, it's always a unique signature, which is why you can't absorb another's mana to fuel your own."
He shrugged. "Any attempts to do so would be as lethal as drinking an extract of widows nail."
Kire nodded. "So if that magic belongs to a different race with it's unique mana, but was somehow compatible with me..."
"You would physically change to match it, up to a point. You shouldn't lose your basic human shape or self though. Just a few things like changes to extremities or eyes, perhaps you might grow some scales, fur or feathers along your arms or legs."
The mage leaned back. "Honestly this is all theoretical. For all I know, you'll one day just BECOME the creature you hold the bloodline of."
Kire shrugged. "Well I feel fine, and human enough. So..."
The mage scowled. "Fine, shoo. I gotta run some tests on your blood anyhow."
Kire walked out and greeted the guards as he walked down the stone corridors. He turned a corner-
"Hello!"
"Ah!" He jumped back at the sudden shock, and Zanna giggled, her curly brown hair bouncing as she jumped in delight.
"By the gods Zanna." Kire muttered, a hand over his chest. "You scared me."
"It was funny!" She puffed out her cheeks.
Kire felt like he didn't know whether to be amused or exasperated. Wasn't this supposed to be a proper young lady of 16 years who was preparing for marriage into high society? Why is she acting so giddy and childish for scaring him?
"Anyways you look... different Kire."
Her eyes traced his newly colorful streak of hair before resting on his eyes and their new slit pupils.
"Yeah, I'm not sure what happened either."
"Soooo... it's almost noon."
Kire nodded.
"Wanna go eat lunch with me?"
Kire frowned. "Should someone of my standing-" he got cut off as she shushed him, putting a finger to his lips.
"Stop that! You're an awakened, a precious member of our country's forces! You have more pull than you think."
Kire rolled his eyes. "There are plenty of mages Zanna."
"But no awakened."
He froze. "...and?"
Zanna looked at him through the fringes of her hair as she ducked her head.
"Mages have magic, but it's just in them. Their children are still ordinary people. Awakened change though... which means the child of an awakened not only has more talent for magic, but is often superior to an ordinary person."
Kire raised an eyebrow. "Well I'm pretty sure if it mattered so much I would've been informed, so I doubt a lot of pressure is going to be put on me to get married."
Zanna laughed. "Oh you're completely clueless huh?"
Kire frowned. 'Sorry?'
"Mr Rizen, you are the first human awakened of our kingdom for the last 200 years, and are 17, rights t the prime age for marriage. You are still on the front lines, and haven't been introduced to political figures yet, but trust me: every family with power will come hunting you and your seed."
"..." Kire blushed a bit as he stepped away from her.
Zanna grimaced. "Yeah it's not very pleasant to be seen as something to be married off and used to continue their line for a stronger generation huh?"
Kite shrugged awkwardly. "Well I imagine you'd understand the feeling well."
He began to walk with Zanna skipping next to him.
"Why are you still here?"
"I asked to be assigned to you."
"Huh?"
Zanna stuck her tongue out at him cutely. "You're totally clueless about manners and how society works, so I'm going to train you at every meal, and help you organize things around you. I'm your assistant."
"Mm." Kire acknowledged, a sudden strange feeling filling him.
He slowly drew to a stop.
"Kire?"
He smiled. "Just give me a second."
He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.
Zanna felt confused, until suddenly the temperature dropped as condensation began forming along the stone walls and her clothes.
"Whoah!" She stepped back as a slight breeze back to blow from Kire.
Kire turned his attention inwards, seeing the small asteroid of water and air, and then pushed his Will into it.
When he opened his eyes he was in the mana world, by choice for the first time!
'Looks like having my own core gives me other advantages.' He smiles to himself as he looked around for the disturbance.
He narrowed in on a spot further away, where ripples emanated from the black space.
'...?'
He flew over, and as he circled it so the magic and star were behind it from his point of view, he could see a sphere of distortion, bending the image of whatever was behind it.
Inside...
'That feels like the presence of that dragon, and someone else?'
Kire dived in on instinct, only to be slapped by an absolute MAELSTROM of pain and suffering!
Hospital, death, sickness, Jonathan, orcs, father, Nesphirii, dragon, dead, alive, pain, people, evil, sucks, bandits, help, no help, alone, loneliness, determination, fight.
Always fight.
Kire steeled himself, reaching through it to the epicenter-!
And broke through to see the faint outline of a woman and the dragon made out of magic.
He could see the pain she was in. Bits and disconnected pieces of the maelstrom seemed to be hers.
She looked up at him, and he forced himself to put on a brave smile.
He reached out...
And grabbed her hand.
"I'm Kire. And I don't know exactly what you've been through... but you look like you could use some help."
And he pulled, and the dragon used all its might to hold the connection together, the tunnel of magic and will between her and him barely holding together as Kire did the final step for him.
He pulled, and then-
They broke free.
Kire floated in the space holding the woman by her hand as light and flame flew into her, the power and passion of fire and the life of light filling her from an outline until Bast stood there in the space.
Bast looked about, eyes wide in wonder.
Then she turned and looked at Kire.
"What... who are you? Where are we?"
Kire looked around. A world of magic, with a star and a forming planet...
"I'm Kire, like I said before. And you could call this place a shared mindscape galaxy?."
He grinned. "Welcome sister."