6.3

Cold wind brushed against John the moment they were above ground, he raised an arm to his forehead to prevent dust from entering them, when the brazen breeze against him became gentle, he lowered his arm and allowed it to caress his face as Evie flew.

“How do you feel about the ride?” Evie’s voice suddenly appeared in his mind, it was though his head space had gained an inner voice that he could not control.

“Evie!? How’d you do that?” John almost shouted at her voice who was inside his head.

“Telepathy is one of the traits that I was born with. It is no surprise that I inherited it from my mother, though I do not have clairvoyant abilities such as hers.”

“No surprise? Do you understand—” due to the increasing altitude, a sudden surge of cold wind entered and irritated John’s lungs, caused him to chok out an unsightly cough.

“The air is cold in the skies, please be careful.”

She immediately reduced their altitude in response, the flapping of wings was changed into a gliding posture. No sooner, a film of warm air surrounded them, no doubt, Evie applied a protective layer around them to soften the impact of the harsh shift in environment.

“Ack, ack! Oh kill me, that was cold!” John criticized himself for having underestimate how harsh the weather was.

Spring had just begun and here he was thinking that he was able to tough out the bone freezing air. If not for the warmth emanating from Evie’s back, he might be clacking his teeth now.

The dragon turned neck back towards him, made sure he was completely fine. Once he nodded back to her and made an ‘ok’ sign with his hand did her worried look soften.

“Try speaking in your head instead of out loud.”

“Like this?” John replied in his head.

“…”

“Hello? John to Evie, testing, testing, can you heaaaaar meeee?”

“…”

“Evie, Evieeee, Evie the dragon. Ephinelyth, oh my dear Ephinelyth don’t leave me running these thoughts like a mad man,” after calling out to her and having no response in kind John shrugged his shoulders. “It only works one way huh?”

“I heard the last part about dear Ephinelyth, John…”

“!!!”

“If that is what you are thinking, I don’t mind you call me that. I still like the name Evie...”

“A-anyways, we were talking about your inherited abilities, I was going to say telepathy is some insane power. That was how you did it wasn’t it? The dagger wielder from the entrance tournament, you knew he used his friend because you read their minds. Not only you can speak to other people in their minds, but you can read their memories if you wanted to right?”

“It was not my intention to read his mind, but yes, that analysis of yours is correct. Initially I did not want to read his thoughts but I began doubting when I observed how odd the pair was behaving. The dagger wielder with an unnatural cockiness to him and his ‘friend’ who might as well been a machine.”

“Was it necessary to execute the dagger wielder? Sure, he was cruel but you could have left him—”

“He betrayed his childhood friend, that heinous person deserves no mercy. It was punishable by death in my eyes. Loyalty is a dragon’s blood, it defines us regardless of the hierarchy we belong to, if one even has a hint of dragon blood, this very trait will compel their existence. Once a dragon’s loyalty is pledged to someone, not even death could waver such a promise from our kind.”

“That’s extreme…” John commented.

“To those who do not see this path that we walk, it is binding and they might as well be dead before they choose a lifestyle like this. But to dragons, it is something that lives in us, and no matter what terrible acts that a dragon may carry out. It is the unmoving rock that gives us stability in this chaotic world, the one thing that we abide to. Do you not feel disgust when you see others turn their backs on you and claim that they were simply using you?”

“I… That is true. I understand where you are coming from. Trust is matter not threaded lightly, dragon or not.” John nodded, paused for a moment then continued to speak in his mind, “Since loyalty is what defines you lot, I was wondering, how would that translate to someone like you.”

“Like me?”

John took a breath before asking Evie his question.

“More specifically, an Elder Dragon who is a telepath. What happens if you discover someone is disloyal to you? On the off chance if you discover unpleasant thoughts that someone has…

“Would you alter their memories?”

Imagine the average telepath, one that had the abilities to communicate with others using their minds, read their thoughts on a whim, perceive whether one was lying, detect if someone was being genuine in their interactions.

What happens when they discover something about the person they were speaking to that went against their principals? Will the telepath pretend to not know about it and ignore it for the rest of their lives? Would they condition the other person’s minds with their powers for self-gain?

Telepaths were not unheard of but because of how painful it was to perceive others and their true intentions, during their developmental ages where their power began to manifest, many end up getting overwhelmed by their power.

Their minds had to handle countless number of thoughts, emotions, and memories flooding into them. Under such information overload, many went insane due to that small amount of power that was only beginning to manifest in them.

Hence, the majority of telepaths chose to end their lives the moment they had their own lives ruined by this very power, those who lived through their teenage years and entered their adulthood never became a functional being due to mental incompetence to handle such a power, each second they lived among others was dangerous everyone, including themselves.

It was no doubt that it was seen as a disease among the common people, but to the right people who had the proper environment to nurture their abilities was where telepaths were most famously known for being a double-edged sword.

Those who had the will and strength to master it to be a powerful will become a master of information, they could attest the credibility of others, lead a life where their life were filled with people who were the most genuine, avoid all malicious people from their lives before they could sink their crooked claws in.

Now, add such power to the capabilities and range of an Elder Dragon, to Ephinelyth. Not only she survived where other telepaths had faltered, she had perfect control over it and was not shy to utilize her power.

That was why John asked her the question. On top of being an all-powerful Elder Dragon, she was also one that possessed telepathic abilities. There was no telling how and what she could do if he wronged her in some way or the other.

“I can’t say I won’t, if I disliked someone, I might erase all their memories just to see them suffer. They may not feel any pain when their mind is wiped, but somewhere in their soul, they would feel empty no matter what they do,” her voice was as cold as steel.

“Oh…” John was unsure why, but he shrunk at her answer. Was this what he wanted to hear? Or was he afraid that he had been manipulated by her into meeting up with her tonight? Even if he knew well that someone like her had no reason to alter his memories, he still worried. “So, the same fate awaits me if I did something different to your liking?”

“...”

His heart throbbed in his chest when the dragon girl did not reply.

It was not the first time he felt this sensation before her kind, somewhere in his mind he acknowledged that this was an immutable fact of his life, that he was just an inferior being compared to the people he met throughout his life. He had no distinct traits besides his above average mind, personality, and healing abilities, everything else about him was not notable. When situations allowed him to prove his inner hero, he failed and was exile from the community he worked for.

And just a little, he was sad that his life was as disposable as the next person.

My life kind of sucks huh?

While he moped for his incompetence, they have entered the compounds of their school, flew past East Wing, where both of them had agreed to meet up originally, way past the academy buildings and into the forests surrounding the academy.

Patches of dark green shifted beneath them, and Evie did not stop until they have reached the very edge of the forest, where the ocean of trees was cut off by a chasm, and when Moxnet academy was no longer in his line of vision.

On the very edge of the forest was a clearing that had an old monastery to it, the Elder Dragon made a swirl in the sky before they landed at the middle of the square garden inside the monastery. She then lowered her body and allowed him to climb down of her.

Evie reverted to her human form right after and began strolling around the compact garden that they were in.

“Look at how beautiful this place is, I found this little monastery of sorts while I was exploring the confines of the academy. Who knew that they have this place tucked away here…”

John turned his head away from her direction and stared at what little light the sun gave off as the world settled into darkness. He purposely made it clear that he ignored her just as she did to his question about her erasing his mind.

Could he do anything else in such a scenario? Blame her for being merciless? For not respecting him when he was expecting a direct answer to his question?

She was an Elder Dragon after all, a being who stood at the apex of all life, she could do whatever she pleased, erasing his memories if he displeased her was only the natural state of life, he could not do anything about it if she already decided on it.

Someone as mortal as he was could not even hope to receive common courtesy from an Elder Dragon, let alone mutual respect.

Even if he dedicated his whole life to get onto Evie’s level of power— No, even the Higher Races’ level of power, it was something beyond him and remained only a pipe dream.

What could I do if she decides to use her powers against me? Would [Heal] even work on psychic abilities? It just puts the body into the optimal state that it was supposed to be in. I can’t cure things like acne, beauty…

Evie stopped her little stroll around the garden when she noticed his disturbed silence. She moved to his front, and in her shorter stature she looked upwards at him.

“John...”

“W-what?”

“Look at me.”

“…”

She moved her hands moved to turn his head and met with his uncertain dark eyes.

“Just as I thought, you are upset.”

“…”

“You’ve been very silent after that question you asked of me. I was wondering if I did anything wrong, and here we are…”

“You are free to do as you please, I should count myself lucky for being in your presence. You are justified in not answering me a question such as that.”

She let out a sigh and spoke, “What if I told you my silence towards your question from earlier meant something else? That you have misunderstood me, that my silence meant something that you have not considered?”

“I understand things completely, Evie. Despite how I am, I am aware of reality, I know that I will never be able get close to your level, even if I use all of my lifespan, I can never hope to achieve powers such as yours. That’s why you were silent earlier, it is because I am something disposable. I know, Evie, I already know, this is an unfair world.”

“You always overthink. And I thought I was the one who has such a bad habit,” she grasped his left hand. “The reason I didn’t say anything was because I thought from our conversation earlier you would realize that doing such a thing to you would never come across my mind. Apparently, I miscommunicated that fact…”

“???”

Evie brushed a hand on his cheeks, “If I would do that to you, to be as cruel to erase your memories, it would be a betrayal on my part. A relationship of any kind depends on two sides, or however many sides are involved. Disagreements are a part of it, but as long values of those people align, no matter how different their approach to life is, it won’t affect their bond. Such is the state of a healthy bond, is it not?”

“I…”

“So, be at ease. I am not so shallow to think of things like wiping your memories, I would rather die than to see myself even entertaining such vile thoughts, let alone act on it. The reason for me wanting to spend my time with you is that I simply find myself to be at ease around you.”

He gave brief nod and squeezed her hand back in kind.

“I…” he stopped as he felt his voice on the verge of cracking. He then spoke to her in his mind, “Thank you.”

The two stood still until the world became drowned in the night, took solace in this moment that was frozen in time, in this place that was undisturbed from the outside world.