There are many dragons native to the outer ring, just as there are the elemental dragons of the inner planes. These dragons are categorized as Alignment Dragons as each species retains the moral ideals of the plane where the species began. Oddly enough they are similar to elementals as they can only propagate in a plane that holds the same traits as the species.

Each dragon species is often called by the home plane for the species, the Tartarian Dragon for example originates in Tartarus though they have spread to other fiendish planes. They are the embodiment of the ideals of their home plane and have extreme affinities for the magic(s) associated with that plane, while being vulnerable to it’s opposite. If they have names for their own species they do not share them with the mortals of the prime material planes.

Adrian

I didn’t manage to leave K asleep but she didn’t say anything, only following me outside.

“Scavenging?” she asks and I nod.

“Any food or weapons, there should be at least one firearm on the corpses.”

I begin to go through the pockets of one of the corpses, not for valuables, though I find myself placing them in Void Cache, but for keys, knives and other weapons.

I can hear K doing the same to another soldier as she speaks, “I’m sorry I wasn’t any help against the dragon.”

“You don’t need to apologize for that.”

“I was less help than I was a hindrance.”

“We didn’t know the dragon would make those shadow copies, don’t worry about it no one died.”

K having more practice at searching the dead finishes her corpse before me and sets what she found next to me. I glance over the items: assault rifle, pistol, a wedding ring, dog tags, a few coins and a few small bills.

“What was the dragon saying before we started fighting?” she asks but she doesn’t seem to be fully behind her question. She must feel guilty, maybe upset with herself over what happened.

“Please don’t get worked up over it, but she was propositioning me. She was going to lay eggs, that was her reason for attacking this place.”

“And you turned her down?”

“Of course I did, combat followed remember.”

“Why?”

I pull K closer, “I meant every promise I ever gave you, Lysan and Talia. What she wanted is for you three and only you three are allowed to change that.”

“Even when I’m not strong or useful?” She says. Does she think that is why I like her? It started that way. . .

“Even then,” after a moment I give her a light kiss. “Lets get back looting, as much as I’d like to show you how much I care about you even when you’re not helpful we have stuff to do.”

“Do we have to? Everyone else is asleep” she says before pulling me closer.

“We do, and I have a question on a different subject for you.”

“What is it?” she asks with slight disappointment.

“Does awakening racial abilities get harder after an individual finishes growing?”

“It becomes almost impossible if not impossible.”

I’m going to need something stronger than what worked for me then. Concentrate and distil draconic essence to jumpstart the process? Can I cause a regression in age? That would make the awakening itself easier. . .

“Do you know how to distil blood essence?”

“Why would you need that?”

“The dragon blood I drank accelerated what the Grey Dream woke up. I want to use something stronger to jumpstart what I’ve been going through.”

“The only way I know how to distil blood essence is a ritual that costs blood. I don’t know it well enough to make any alterations, and it only works on lifeblood.”

I frown, the price will be high. The connotations of her tone of voice are not lost on me, she does not like it. Moral objections to the ritual, odd for a bloodmage to have qualms about their magic.

“I won’t make you perform it if you do. Do you have a problem with it?”

“Destroying the lives of others to grow in strength is what demons do, this ritual does the same.”

“You don’t want to be like a demon, but there is a difference between this and them. Consume to have the strength to defend is different from the ways of demons. Why is just as important as how something is done.”

K nods, “I know but so many who start doing this part of blood magic end up addicted to it and they become like demons.”

“Could there be a corrupting energy involved?” I wonder out loud. If the ritual came from demons or devils it might have, or it could be that the experience is addicting.

“No, it doesn’t utilize tainted mana. Not this version at least, I made sure of that even though infernal blood magic does this better.”

“I’m guessing that version has corrupting energy?”

“It does.”

“Promise me never to use anything like that.”

K nods, I think this is the only thing I’ve ever demanded of her.

“I’ll help refine the dragon but we can’t resort to just rounding up random people.”

I smile, “luckily we know where there are some people who want to kill me.”

I have scruples against just killing and harming anyone like a murder hobo but there is nothing wrong with making the most out of my enemies’ resources. K also smiles at that line of thought.

“But how will we get to them?”

“I don’t know. I’ll need to know the state that they need to be in, so we can work out a plan after you tell me what we need to prepare.”

By dawn K and me have gotten through most of the base though some of it was locked up and I couldn’t figure out which part held it shut and I am standing in front of one such door now.

As I haven’t found nearly as many weapons as I had hoped for and sensed they must be behind these doors.

“Can you open this door?” K asks as I have gotten us into some of the locked rooms.

“I don’t think so, I don’t see where the latches are, nor do I know the pass code.”

“What about the square keys like at the hotel?”

Square keys? A moment later I groan and place my hand on my face, of course there would be pass cards on the ID badges.

“I should have thought of that earlier. Thanks, can you grab me one from whoever has the nicest uniform?”

I hear her walk over to the nearby bodies as I figure out where the wires are and begin to power the door by twisting reality. I hope they didn’t set some failsafe to lock everyone out in case of power failure.

I don’t find any wires to the rest of the base but I find dying batteries in the keypad. That makes sense, keeps them from being dependent on the now dead and fallen power lines outside.

The door gives a loud click after K passes somebody’s ID badge through the keypad a few times.

“We’re lucky it didn’t require a password” I comment as K opens the door. Behind it is an armory, it’s in some disarray but we won’t have an ammunition problem for a while.

By the time we got back to Bryan and Ria it was around half way to noon. I could have taken one of the watches out or been wearing one but I haven’t found much use for knowing the specific time since the conjunction.

“Ready to go or do you two want some more time alone?” Bryan asks.

“We need to head back to the others” K says and I nod and the two of us turn around.

Bryan and Ria follow us out to the truck we used to get here and I end up driving as Bryan did most of it on the way here.

“Did you get what you needed?” he asks.

“The hardest part” I answer.

“Part?”

“I want to distil the dragon’s essence. That my mom is a fair bit into adulthood is going to make it harder for her than it was for me.”

“How?”

“Distil draconic essence or adulthood making racial awakening harder?”

“Both.”

“Distilling it will be blood magic, I won’t go further than that. Your paladinhood might get in the way.”

“Are you . . .”

“No, we aren’t going all evil blood cult. A moral grey, use of enemies.

As for racial awakening, the body after puberty does not change much aside from the effects of aging. This also makes it harder for any changes made to a creature's makeup to be expressed.”

“How did you learn that?”

“A mix between Kythia and having picked up a lot of understanding about living beings to become a better healer.”

Ria leans forward from the back seat, “I’m hungry. Can I have some food?”

That’s right, I forgot about breakfast not being hungry after the dragon and morning sunshine. I pull out a bag of granola and pass it to her and another to K. She didn’t ask but she hasn’t eaten.

The drive back is faster than the drive to the base, we already cleared what debris we had to make the road passable.

Just past an hour of the drive I notice four girls walking down the road, everyone but dad who stayed at the farm. What are they doing here? The passengers look up from the books they’re reading as I slow down to a stop.

“Why are they here?” Bryan asks.

I don’t answer as the response of 'I don’t know' is obvious. Something must have happened at the farm though, an attack? If they fled without dad though it must have been dangerous and he stayed behind to give them a chance to escape. But if he is a seer why didn’t he avoid it entirely?

“What happened?” I ask the girls as I open my door to step out.

“Your dad said something about fight other Ravnos before telling us to run” Abagail answers just before Talia and Lysan would have.

The implications of other Ravnos start to turn in my head, “Ok, and why is my mom have a bunch of cuts along her hands and arms?”

“Because she has no talent with a sword and kept trying to learn even after sister ran out of healing magic” Talia answers and my mom looks down at her feet.

I’m not sure what drove her to want to be able to fight but the desire for strength will help her connect with her dragon after awakening.

“Can I see the journal dad gave you?” mom asks and I pass it to her without a thought. I finished it on the drive to the dragon.

“You won’t like the contents.”

She just nods before beginning to speed read through the pages.

“If you family is attacking your dad and maybe you should we really be going towards them?” Bryan asks.

“No, we need to change plans. I was going to bring it up once we were all back at the farm but we won’t be going back there now.”

I glance at my mom to see she has turned everything out as she is becoming more upset by the contents of the journal. Should I have given it to her? Too late now.

“You’re going to abandon you dad?” Abagail asks.

“No, I’m respecting his reasoning. If he sent you away it was to protect you. He'll find us when it’s over.”

I think I managed to hide my concern, I want to go but I won’t put everyone in guaranteed danger I don’t know how to handle.

“Then where are we going?”

“To gather the rest of what I need to wake up my mother’s dragon blood and figure out what to do after that.”

“Kansas City” Bryan half asks half states.

I nod, “there is enough of the city yet to return to normalcy for us to stay for a few days before anyone will find us.”

“Lets get going then” Bryan says and everyone climbs into the truck bed or cabin.

No one speaks during the drive back into Kansas City, I hope that dad really did handle the issue with the government. I don’t want to test it though, not if I don’t have to.

I need living people for K's ritual, the only two solutions I can think of are raiding the Althaen patrols or calling in the favor to Charles Del Mon. I’m skeptical about the vampire, he wouldn’t have any issues with gathering people up if my assumptions are correct but if they are I can’t trust him.

I pull into the driveway of a house that is still in good condition.