Path of Dragons 18 - Chapter 37 - The Consent of the Innocent (Patreon)

Elijah pulled away, both physically and metaphorically.  When he opened his eyes, he saw exactly what he expected – a single mushroom, maybe a foot tall and twice as broad.  The cap was mottled green, yellow, and red, creating a rainbow of colors that screamed a warning at any animal that it was not to be touched. 

The mushroom wasn’t all of Fungee.  Far from it.  However, it was the body Elijah had come to accept as the best representation of the creature he’d adopted as his son. 

He sat back on his heels and sighed.

From about ten feet away, Imal asked, “What did he say?”

“He’s a mushroom.  He didn’t say anything.”

Elijah could practically hear Imal’s eye roll when she said, “You know that’s not what I’m talking about.  How did he respond?”

“Enthusiastically,” Elijah sighed.

It should have been a relief.  Elijah should have been  happy that Fungee had reacted so well to the idea.  After all, it gave him exactly what he wanted.  On top of that, Fungee seemed happy with the notion, especially the prospect of growing stronger. 

But none of that helped. 

Elijah still felt guilty, like he’d tricked a child into doing something he knew was destructive.  Perhaps that was a good characterization, because despite his age, Fungee was even more immature than Callux.

He’d experienced pain, but he didn’t really understand the concept.  Elijah knew that.  But at the same time, he also recognized that now that the idea had been broached, there was no going back.  Fungee wanted to be relocated to the core, and he wouldn’t accept anything else.

“I hate this,” Elijah muttered, pushing himself to his feet. 

Imal approached from behind and put her hand on his shoulder.  “It’s for his good, right?” she asked.

Elijah didn’t immediately respond because he hated the answer.  The bottom line was that it would make Fungee stronger.  It would push him forward, both from a developmental and an evolutionary perspective.  Elijah had made the same choice for himself a thousand times over, but applying the same driving reasoning to Fungee felt incredibly misguided.

“Yes,” he admitted at last.

Even as he did, Fungee had gone to work, retracting  his hyphae.  The ground trembled subtly beneath Elijah’s feet as thousands of collective miles’ worth of fungal network rushed back toward that now-vibrating mushroom.

It glimmered with ethera and vitality, briefly distracting Elijah from the prospect before him. 

“It’s pretty, isn’t it?”

“He is,” Elijah admitted, his hand creeping up to grab Imal’s.  She let it fall, and the stood there together, watching as Fungee consolidated his colony.

It took the better part of two hours, and in that time, Elijah and Imal were treated to quite a show.

“Reminds me of the Fourth of July,” Elijah said.

“What’s that?”

Elijah gave her a brief history lesson about his country of origin and how they celebrated their independence.  “When my sister and I were little, our parents would buy us these sparklers,” he said.  “Just little flammable sticks that created sparks.  But at night, and to a kid…they were like magic.”

“I saw a deity Illusionist once,” Imal said.  “She was an Entertainer by archetype, and she created these lifelike shows where all the people were represented by rainbow lights.  They danced and sang and…”

“And what?” Elijah asked.

She shook her head. “Just realized that she died not long after the show I saw,” Imal said. “She was a serpentor, and some great clan tried to strongarm her into joining them.  She refused and disappeared for a few months.”

“Then?”

“Someone found her body outside a tower,” Imal explained.  “The official story was that she was attacked by some Voxx from a spontaneous tower break.”

“But that wasn’t what happened?”

“Someone saw some of her jewelry on another Illusionist who’d been  hired by that same clan,” Imal said.  “That was enough for most people to make the connection.”

“Damn.”

Imal just nodded, never looking away from Fungee’s show.  Not until the lights died down and the ground stopped shaking.

“It feels…different now.”

“He absorbed a good bit of the local vitality,” Elijah explained.  “He’s going to use it in transit.”

“He can do that?” she asked.

“Apparently.”

In truth, Elijah still had no idea where Fungee’s limits lay.  For all he knew, the colony would became a universe-devouring super-fungus.  That fear, if it could even be characterized as such, was enough to keep him awake some nights.  But as dangerous as Fungee was, his situation wasn’t unique. 

He might be.

But there were any number of people out there who could destroy universes.  Elijah had met with one not long ago.  And he believed Fungee was probably more mentally stable than the Poet had been in millennia. 

Of course, that kind of came with the territory.  With great age, came great power. And insanity – at least to some degree – trotted along right between them. 

“Do you want to come with me?” Elijah asked.

Imal shook her head. “I can’t survive the core.”

“If it makes you feel any better, neither can I,” Elijah lied.  “It’ll destroy me too.”

Eventually, but that was the part he left off.  Elijah had already proven he could withstand the core’s destructive influence, even if his survival had an expiration date. 

She smiled. “Sure it will.”

Elijah didn’t argue with her.  Instead, he asked, “Can you take care of Callux for me?  He usually functions just fine when I’m gone, but…”

“But you worry about him,” she supplied. 

He shrugged, admitting, “Sometimes.  I don’t mean to be neglectful, but I have other responsibilities as well.  I know he has other people to take care of him, but I’m still…I’m still his father.  He still needs me.”

Imal slipped her arm under his and leaned close.  “He understands.”

“Does he?”

She looked up at him, saying, “He does.  He talks about you all the time.”

“Really?” Elijah asked.  Imal had been spending time with Callux, mostly because he tended to follow her around like a hero-worshipping lost puppy.  However, she’d also taken her responsibilities to the young orc very seriously, never treating him like anything less than her own flesh and blood.

It really was endearing, and it solidified something Elijah had always known. Imal was a good person, and the sort of partner he’d always wanted but never really deserved. 

Why she stuck around was a mystery.

“Constantly,” she reiterated.

“Hm.  That’s…I like that.”

“You would,” she said, smiling slightly as she clung more tightly to him.

After that, they went silent and enjoyed one another’s company for a little while longer.  That lasted right up until Elijah realized he couldn’t put action off any longer.  With that, he separated from Imal and approached Fungee.  After a little examination, he found the edge of the fungal colony’s influence and began to dig.

In only a short time, Elijah had managed to scoop the mushroom and the tangled web of hyphae and tendrils from the ground. He transformed into a dragon and wrapped his claws gingerly around the entire thing.

Walking on three legs, he exited the chamber and took flight.

The first stretch of his journey was characterized by tingling pain – like someone repeatedly shoving needles into his scales.  That was just the intensifying atmosphere, and it was entirely expected.

Elijah ignored it, save to ensure that Fungee was okay.

And to his surprise, the fungal colony was more than just okay.  He was thriving as he absorbed vast quantities of dense ethera.  It was like he’d been on rations before, but now, he had leave to eat his fill.

That continued for mile after mile, and as the atmosphere grew thicker, so too did Fungee’s appetite.  By the time they crossed the first ring, the ball of fungi and dirt in Elijah’s claws had begun to glow.

The second ring saw that glow intensify, and the third made it look like a miniature sun.  Albeit a blue one.

On and on it went until Elijah found himself in the shadow of the core.

It looked different than it had the last time Elijah had visited.  Less volatile, certainly, but no less dangerous.

Elijah landed next to the inner edge of the ring, then set Fungee down.  A moment later, he embraced Soul of the Wild and plunged headfirst into the river of the fungi’s consciousness.  It was always a disconcerting experience, and this instance was no different. 

Fungee’s thoughts were so alien that it took Elijah a few moments to get his bearings.  Once he did, he tried his best to convey exactly what was going to happen.  He reiterated that if they went through with it, Fungee would experience pain like he never had.

But as far as Elijah could tell, Fungee was more than okay with that.

In fact, he seemed eager, which wasn’t as comforting as the enthusiasm implied he should feel.  Elijah couldn’t quite shake the feeling he was making a mistake.  Was that because of just how alien Fungee was?

Probably.

However, Elijah kept coming back to a simple fact – the danger posed by Fungee wasn’t any different than that represented by people like the Poet.  Or by Elijah himself.  Just because he was a different sort of organism didn’t mean he was inherently worse. 

And as his parent, Elijah knew it was his responsibility to teach Fungee restraint.  Could he?  He’d managed it with Callux, albeit with a lot of help from friends, family, and others from Earth.  Callux was also fundamentally closer to a human being than a fungal colony.

So maybe it was a bad comparison.

At the end of the day, despite all of Elijah’s objections, he knew what he needed to do.  He could no longer fool himself into believing that he lacked choice.  He could turn back.  He could maybe find another way.  But he knew he wouldn’t.

The goal was too important.

Fungee’s desires had been made apparent.

And there was a small part of Elijah’s mind – the scientific bits – that very much wanted to see what would happen if he gave a unique fungi access to so much power. 

So, he said, “You ready for this, buddy?”

Predictably, Fungee didn’t answer.  All his tendrils were wrapped up in the dirt clod, and he was still just a mushroom.  They weren’t known for their articulate natures.

But Elijah did think he felt a small pulse of enthusiastic ethera.  That was enough to send him on his way. 

He shifted back into his dragon form, loaded himself up with healing spells, then grabbed Fungee before throwing himself toward the core.  The second he cleared that cliff, a wall of caustic ethera slammed into him.  His wings were the first affected, with the leaves and vines wilting within moments.  But his scales went soon after, followed by the flesh beneath.

They rebuilt themselves as Elijah soared across the gap, but as he landed on the surface of the core, the damage outpaced his healing. 

Elijah had a plan for that, though.

He set Fungee on the surface, then used Shape of Trees. 

Even as he shifted, his body elongating into a trunk, Elijah absorbed massive quantities of ethera to fuel his ongoing healing spells.  With the boost provided by God of the Forest and Vitality of Nature, his healing reached a point of being more than up to the task.

That allowed him to focus on Fungee.

Already, the fungal colony had begun to take root, but despite his enormous ability to regenerate, Fungee had begun to lose ground.  That was where Elijah came in.

He provided the vitality Fungee needed to survive.

But more than that, he began to guide the colony’s growth via his massively boosted Dictate of the World Tree.  For his part, Fungee reeled from the pain – which broke Elijah’s heart.  However, nestled at the core of the fungal colony was a level of resolve that surprised even Elijah. 

Fungee would not be defeated by a little pain – that much was sure.  In that, he took after his father.

Even then, Elijah knew it would be a long and difficult process.  So, he settled in, spread his roots, and got to work.