Crimson electricity. In the shape of a slim sword, the draconic woman before him held the sparking handle as though it were no different than any other object, all that power perfectly under control. Given that the power that rested within him came from her, there wasn’t any reason he couldn’t do the same.

Sparks arced off different parts of the electrical blade in his right hand. It struck the ground around the ruins, blackened scorch marks left behind. More sparks struck harmlessly through the air. Others struck him, faint pangs coming from those spots though that ended with the energy just being recycled back into him. Every so often one would arc out to strike her, the sparks harmlessly diffusing across her body.

The unstable sword in his had potent power but it wasn’t reliable enough for a real battle.

“A lack of control is to be expected.”  She said, a nod of approval given despite the lack luster result. “I may have been the one to impart this power upon you, but it has already become yours. Its particularly wild nature speaks of your own.”

He had his fair share of experience with different kinds of energy so he wasn’t worried about whether or not he could learn to properly control it. It was just a matter of when, time and experience the difference maker.

“You wouldn’t be against another fight, would you?” He asked, splitting his attention between the blade and her, the dragon herself his main interest.

“I enjoyed our first, rather thoroughly, but I must admit I found myself getting carried away. Had it not been for your resilience and the dangerous one that accompanies you, I may have killed you.” She admitted, her stable blade lowered. “I don’t believe I can treat you as a human, especially amidst battle. If you are not willing to bare that risk again, I don’t believe we should have another.”

A look from him gave her an answer.

“Simply make the demand when you are ready.” She added, smiling slightly. “I do have a question of my own. During that battle, and after, my power was intensified for a time.”

“That has a bit to do with my power.” Onyx said. He intended on letting his crimson blade spark away, but it burst into sparks that struck different parts of the ruins stone, grass, and them. Blue shifting flames rose up in place of it, forming a thin layer of over his arms. The world could keep trying to disrupt it and be rid of it, but he’d already grown enough to the point that he could bring the energy beyond himself with a bit of focus.

“It reacted to our fight and enhanced both of us. You can think of it as a form of fragile resonance; it requires a type of mutual focus that most would struggle to maintain in the middle of a fight. I call it battle meditation.” It offered him a permanent boost in power significant enough to do what he did to that Great Rune and, had she possessed mana too, it might’ve been a permanent boost for her too.

“An ability that enhances the strength of both you and your enemy?  That could easily result in your own death could it not?”

“It’s fragile because it requires very specific circumstances. It’s not something that happens much.” He explained. “And dying during something that rare is a good way to go if you ask me.”

She accepted with a nod, taking a moment to look at his fiery mana.

“By the way, how much can you carry in your dragon form?” He asked. Her brow rose, yellow eyes jumping up from his mana to his face.

XOXO

Lending aid in battle. Overseeing Dragon Communion. Teaching the best and most worthy among them to wield what little of their sacred power they could handle. After their friendship with Godwyn and subsequently their partnership with The Golden Order was solidified, there was plenty they did for their people, some of it by request but always their choice in the end.

That pattern was quickly forming with Onyx. Even if his request did not align with her expectations.

Dipping beneath the high clouds she used to shroud their movements but avoiding a full nosedive, Lansseax gradually lowered and turned herself. Soon, the edge of one of her wings gliding just above coastal waters, she settled into a hover at the back half of the island he called home, carefully touching all the weight tied to different parts of her body down. Onyx, running across her scales, undid all their binding before jumping off her.

He landed on watery sands among basketfuls of stone, minerals, and other things he’d been in search of. Being asked to help transport building materials wasn’t a first, the mundane act something she’d done in times few remembered, but it’d come as a surprise.

She’d already determined that power itself didn’t sit at the forefront of his mind. Dragon Communion. The sacred lightning she’d imparted upon him. Another fight. Knowing that he didn’t covet power the same way many others in this dying age didn’t make it any less intriguing for him to pass up focusing his curiosity on any of that and instead asking for help with something like this.

She shifted, feeling herself shrinking as she fell, feet soon sinking into the same watery sand he stood in.

“You intend to create something with all of this?”

“A few different things. Just focused on buildings at the moment.” He said while handling over the plain furred gray robes he’d put together for her. “Want to try and fix up those ruins you’re staying in?”

As in use her own two hands to build something? A nearly novel concept truthfully. “Should you have the time.” She said, as she slipped on her clothes. The burial acts others practiced were never a part of her culture, but these were much different times; restoring the communion site one of her people chose to draw their last breath at was fitting in a way.

Whether or not Onyx chose to partake in the act of Communion, his strange nature leaving her to question what the results of such a thing would even be, she would like the place to be honored in some way.

“Master Onyx!” They both looked further up into the greenery of the island’s inland, the demihumans among his group looking down at them. “The one you brought back, the injured one, has woken up.”

XOXO

“You have my thanks.” Nepheli, despite the bandages wrapped around her body, not all of her wounds healed on account of Melina being far too absorbed by Marika’s now physical presence to do anything more than ensure she survived her wounds, went through the effort of bowing her head to him.

“Don’t mention it.” Onyx said, returning the gesture with a nod of his head. “You sure you’re good to travel like that?”

Nepheli raised an arm as she looked down at herself, carefully testing how much pressure she could put on her wrapped side. “I have traveled further in worst states.” She said, her grayish brown eyes finding his once again. “You owe me no explanation but laying down Godrick and retrieving the Shard were the reason I journeyed to Limgrave. I assume you finished off their lord. Can I also assume you took the Shard as well?”

“I did have it.” He admitted. “But I gave it away.”

“May I ask to who?”

“Someone who needed it.” While the thought of going around revealing Marika was around in times like this sounded mildly amusing, just to see other reactions if nothing else, he didn’t plan on name dropping her to anyone or revealing much.

Now that she had a physical body of her own and theoretically capable of what she had asked him to do herself, he wanted to see what exactly she did and how she went about things. Especially without all that power she had when they first met.

That sounded far more interesting.

That, and with this bond that still existed between them, he suspected her death wouldn’t come without some kind of backlash his way.

“I understand.” Nepheli said offering him another nod and thanks before turning her back on him, checking the axes at her waist and the pack of supplies on her back before taking off across the sandy shores of Limgrave’s coast, headed inland. “Once again, you have my thanks, warrior. I’ll see you again, should the fates deign it.”

He watched her take off, waiting until she disappeared atop of the rocky slop that led away from the coast.

“I have seen her once before.” The humanoid dragon said as she stepped up beside them, having been watching from the entrance of the tunnels that connected the mainland back to the island. “Among the tarnished that remain steadfast in their calling, she is one of few that carry a sense of honor. The same can not be said of those she aligns herself with.”

“Have you heard of Gideon Ofnir?” She asked, looking down from the direction Nepheli went and focusing on him.

XOXO

(A/N: Brother still doesn't know Lansseax's name lol. Guess the two just don't feel the need for proper introductions when they're talking to each other.)