The next morning, I understand what Sophia meant by looking in the mirror. As a result of being Void-touched, my eyes are now pure black spheres. If I look closely though, my corneas are little, faintly-glowing, red dots.

Thomas, in a much more chipper mood, is making pancakes and bacon for his daughter’s first day of sixth grade. She’s eight-years-old though, so she should be going into third grade. When I asked Thomas about it, out conversation went like this:

“Ah, right. I’ll give you the biology course later today, but just know that elves and the dragons mature similarly yet differently. Elves grow up, but as they approach a twenty-year-old human age, their biological clock slows. Their mental clock also slows just conversely.”

“Dragons always age slowly, but their mental clock never slows. As such, Nora is much more intelligent than her physical age. This makes an odd asynchronicity in her, and as such, she prefers to act more like her biological age. Legally though, and to not die of boredom, she has to attend classes of her mental age.”

I’d never thought Thomas, a ne’er-do-well, would be concerned about the legality of something.

Anyway, I sit down at the table next to the bouncing Nora. Aria sets a plate full of three pancakes—topped with whipped cream, butter, and syrup—right in front of me. A much, much taller stack of about 20 pancakes gets set in front of Nora.

I stare in abject amazement as her eyes become thinner, yellow slits; her wings unfold outward; and she dives into the pancake pile like a ferocious animal. Thomas sends a nod to Aria, whom in turn picks up Nora by her collar and slaps her.

Nora ruffles her herself and patiently sits down, using her utensils to eat her breakfast. Her claws are still dripping with syrup, but that doesn’t compare to the blush painted across her face. How adorable.

Shortly after that, Nora runs to her room, only coming out a short while later in a button-up shirt, tie, jacket, and skirt. She’s only missing a vest and pocket-watch to be a mini-me of Thomas. A satchel is slung around her shoulder, filled to the brim with books, paper, and pencils.

“I’m ready,” she cheers. Oh, poor child. Things only go downhill from here. Middle school is a horrible thing; especially when your mother is the strictest police officer in town, and your father is known as a philanderer.

Uh…that doesn’t apply here, does it? Thomas and Sophia are much better than them, I think?

Thomas nods and grabs his coat. We all leave the penthouse while Thomas does a final check to make sure everything is turned off. Downstairs and outside, we hop on a subway, garnering several strange looks.

Oh yeah, so I’m not wearing my hero outfit, but instead a sweater and sweatpants that had a hole ripped in it for my tail. Apparently, Aria had the displeasure of changing me while I was still unconscious and she decided not to put a shirt on me and just threw my current outfit on.

I don’t think anyone except us knows this…probably.

Anyway, the maid, dragon, and man who looks like he came out of a slightly-steampunk 18th century along with me paints quite the picture. Like, ‘Maybe they’re time travelers?’ Or, ‘Are they going to the Renaissance fair?’ Maybe even, ‘This is normal.’

Man, Telepathy is useful.

We drop off Nora at a fairly nice school. Thomas has apparently made it his life’s mission to embarrass his daughter, and since Aria is essentially his brainchild, then she also does the same.

Anyway, an arm-throne right up to the school’s entrance is once way to do things.

————————————————————————————————————

In front of Thomas’s couch sits a small coffee table, and in-between the table and the couch sits me, on the floor. The opposite side of the room boasts a Doctor Archimedes standing in front of a whiteboard he brought in.

He draws a square with a cross-section inside—a Punnett square. A contemplative look paints his face as he holds the marker up to his chin. “You know…they teach this stuff in middle school; you should know it.”

I tilt my head and narrow my eyes. “Thomas, I haven’t been in middle school for a decade now. You really think I remember this stuff?”

“Fair enough,” he sighs. “Well, most people have these dominant traits and recessive traits in their genetic code.” He draws a big X next to and above the left box, following up with a small x next to the upper-right box and lower-left box.

“These traits combine by chance to create a dominant gene, a recessive gene, or a dominant-recessive gene. Though the recessive trait can only be seen if it’s a recessive-only gene.”

I kinda remember this now; it’s jogging some memories. “I’m beginning to remember this…I think.”

“If you do, then I can move onto the next part: what happened with all the new species. When the world got all of its mana, new species popped up everywhere with memories of different planes, and they all just got shoved here. We, of course, took a diplomatic approach, though there was a few scuffles here and there.”

He coughs, realizing the tangent he was going down.

“Ahem, humans—the Homo Sapiens—have versatile DNA. Essentially, every humanoid creature, bar a few, is just a human with a few traits switched or altered. As such, we can…procreate with almost any creature in the world which lead to some…interesting consequences, but let me explain the exceptions first.”

“Beast-humans are the most notable outlier. If a human and a beast-human have a child, then their child will be either human or beast-human. No species mixing here!”

“Most monsters will end up killing a human before they can even try, but those that are as intelligent as most sapient creatures or meet a really ballsy human leads to the species like the Arachne or Dragonewts. Though, the Arachne can be formed by large congregations of mana naturally.”

“Now, a human and an elf will always create a half-elf. A being that has the average lifespan of a human crossed with an elf, and stats to boot. A human and a half-elf will always have human children. A half-elf and an elf will always have elven children. Though this is unlikely as elves are some of the biggest racists out there, even to their own species.”

“A beast-human and a beast-human of the same genus, but a different species will have a cross-breeding effect. If they’re of a different genus, then no child can be had. So, a tiger and a lion can have a liger, but a feline and a wolf cannot have children.”

“Beast-humans and elves will either have beast-human children or elven children. The DNA is really incompatible, so conception is difficult between the two as well.”

“Dragonewts are interesting because their DNA is just as versatile as humans. Their creation actually came from a horny, human bard and a dragon who had no sense of taste. Any of the aforementioned groups that include humans can be replaced with a dragon or dragonewt.”

“Humans and dragonewts though are highly incompatible. For one, the dragonewt might harm or kill their partner in procreation if they aren’t careful. Secondly, both are incapable of children together, so they typically don’t engage in relationships.”

Thomas holds his hand up for a second towards the kitchen, then a mug shoots out into his hand. Staring intently, the glass fills with water which he downs.

“Alright, now onto characteristics.” He chucks the whiteboard across the room as he doesn’t really need it anymore.

“Humans are an all-rounder. Second in procreation abilities to the rabbit beast-human. Since we are kind of the average of all species, we have average ability across all, too.”

“Beast-humans vary greatly, but they typically get enhanced stomachs, senses, physical abilities. However, in trade, they don’t excel in magic very much and have a shorter lifespan than humans. People like you, which have skill in both magic and physical abilities are rare. Some are lucky to be born as an esper, or psychic, which are really popular in Japan. Or they move to China and learn to use this Qi stuff. Cultivation. That sort of thing.”

“Elves also vary. Their main traits are longevity, magic, and wilderness survival abilities. Honestly, they would be perfect humans; however, they’re more like humans taken up to an eleven. As they’re pretty much perfect in any endeavor they try, they’re also pricks. Major ones. Like they sneer and turn up their nose as you walk past. Luckily, there are some good ones, though in the minority, unfortunately.”

“There are so many monsters that can be defined as having sapient intelligence that it would take me weeks to list them all off. It’d be a great mental exercise though. I’ll just mention the few with which you’re familiar: Arachne and Dragons.”

“Arachne, in monster form, boast a female human half that connects at the waist to the head of a spider body. This does mean that they have double the organs, ten eyes, and ten limbs. They’re honestly another heart and an aquatic ability away from being called octopi. They can produce a variety of poisons from their fangs, can produce threads as strong as steel, and are general killing machines. With the spider being the size of a mini-van, Arachne are dangerous threats.”

“Dragons…mean death. The typical European dragon has a body tougher than any metal alloy made from the pre-Awakened periodic table of elements. A sac near their lungs can produce a variety of gases: flammable, poisonous, acidic, or some other effect. Eastern dragons are more snake-like in their forms, flying through the sky or water with ease. Less breath abilities, but more access to differing energies: Mana and Qi.”

“Um. Hmm. Am I missing anything?” Thomas holds up the pen to his mouth again; this time squeezing just a little too hard, and ink bursts out in a splatter.

“Fuck!” He curses as ink drips down his suit, and he decidedly leaves towards his room.

I guess the lesson’s over. I kinda wanted to learn about dryads, more monsters, and maybe some sea creatures. I heard that the Mer were rebuilding Atlantis on the news.