Light and Shadows: Humans and Dragons [Private] (Shuhei/Akeya)

Now that she had been to Mount Helicon before, and had become significantly stronger since last time, reaching the island floating high in the sky was a lot easier for Akeya. The half dragon flew through the skies, higher and higher towards a location which most people could never find even if they got their hands on a magic device which allowed for extended flight and were given a map. She knew very well that this was a special location. It was one which was only accessible to members of the Blue Pegasus guild, or anybody who was receiving the help of such a member. Akeya wasn't completely sure what made it so that only they could find Mount Helicon. If she had to hazard a guess she'd say that the Blue Pegasus guild mark, which every guild member had to receive on their body, contained a very intricate and sophisticated spell which allowed them to pass through the deceptive layers that must surround Mount Helicon for even the strongest mage to be unable to find it without the help of Blue Pegasus. The mark would function as a sort of key, unlocking the veils and the various effects that helped keep this place hidden.

Well, that wasn't too important. What was important that Akeya could find the place, and that it contained information and various other things which could be of use to her. This place was accessible to members of Blue Pegasus, and one thing they could do here was train. The entire floating island was filled with various magical plants, animals, and it was even said that the legendary Hippocrene fountain was located on this island. The half dragon had no success finding it so far, however. Which was quite interesting seeing how she, given her ability to fly freely while also possessing some very sharp senses, had already gone across the entire island once looking for it. She had no real plans for it: she just wanted to find it so she could inspect it a little, see if it contained any interesting secrets that she could actually discover. The lack of success was probably not an indication of her own incompetence. It's more likely that once again it had to do with the Blue Pegasus mark. If it could act as a key which allowed the one wearing it to reach Mount Helicon in the first place, it could also act as a key to access the Hippocrene fountain specifically. She'd have to figure out how to make use of that particular key, however, and she didn't have a clue so far. She was pretty sure merely wearing the mark was enough to reach Mount Helicon, whereas the key to Hippocrene appeared to have some requirement to it. With no clue, and convinced that nobody who could access the fountain would be willing to tell her (it sounded like the kind of thing where you had to figure it out for yourself), Akeya was at something of an impasse at that front.

But that wasn't what she was here for today. Or rather, this evening. As usual Akeya slept most of the day, only waking up to train or if something special occurred that demanded her attention. She woke up when the sun began to reach the horizon, creating her personal dawn which everybody else would call the evening. Given how fast Akeya could be when she wished it hadn't taken very long after the very moment that she woke up before she was already approaching the floating island, landing on the edge for a moment to look around and sniff the air. It was still the same as it had been the last time. Unlike the world far below Mount Helicon seemed to be one of those places where time never really changed anything. As if it was disconnected from the rest of the world and even time itself. Rather than an actual location on a map it was a place. In a world filled to bursting with magic, and all sorts of mythical and mystical creatures, places, and similarly boggling phenomena, a floating island which could only be accessed by a chosen few which never really seemed to change wasn't that out of place. Akeya personally liked the place, if only since it placed her closer to the sky. At night she could practically dance amongst the stars if she started out from this floating island.

She knew of somebody else who seemed to like this place a lot, and that was the person that she was looking for. Shuhei, the former guild master of Blue Pegasus, the first and foremost of the Gods of Ishval and the Wizard Saints, and the Third Generation White Dragon Slayer, the Dragon Slayer whose element was the element of light. He had been the guild master when Akeya joined the guild, and she had always thought that he was going to remain the guild master until the day he either disappeared and never returned, or his life just came to its natural end. Him having stepped down was actually a surprise to her, and she had wondered why he had done that. The first instinct she had regarding the subject was that he was simply done with all the paperwork involved in being the guild master, but she didn't think that alone was enough for the man to give up on being the guild master. He might be fairly laid back, focused on the more fun parts of life, and just not pompous in the slightest, but he had given the strong impression that Blue Pegasus was the most important thing in his life. The stories about the history of Blue Pegasus assisted with this impression, since they told the tale of how after the guild had been destroyed nearly completely Shuhei had been the one to build it back up from scratch, turning it into one of the mightiest and most respected of the guilds in the entirety of Fiore.

She actually didn't know much more about him than that. She didn't know his past, where he came from, who his family was, what his favourite food was, any of those things. As a person he was pretty much a mystery. He was strong, he was a pretty relaxed person, Blue Pegasus was apparently extremely important to him, and he was the Dragon Slayer of Light, the Third Generation which meant he was the closest to a dragon that a human could be while still considered a human. That last part was what Akeya wanted to talk with him about, seeing how she had gone to that step of being as close to being a dragon as you could be while still being a human, and then had stepped beyond that without really a second thought.

She was the Shadow Dragon Slayer, a Third Generation just like Shuhei. She only had absorbed a Shadow Dragon Slayer Lachrima very recently, but because of her already having been half dragon at that point the absorption had been both fast and easy. It had only taken a couple of days before it felt as natural as if she had been born with it. She had been born with the blood of dragons, the soul of a dragon, and after she began to take on the magic of a dragon her body had also begun to change into that of a dragon. She had been human once, but she was quite clearly heading towards the point where she would abandon the last of her humanity and be a full-fledged dragon. But Shuhei had been a Third Generation for a lot longer than she had been, and she hadn't seen anything of the sort with him. Well, of course he had his draconic traits, and that Dragoon Form of his, but it wasn't anything to the extent that Akeya had, even though he seemed to use the White Dragon Slayer abilities quite effortlessly.

She wanted to talk to him about that. As the Shadow Dragon Slayer he could to some extent be considered her exact opposite. She knew that before her an older member of the guild had also been a Third Generation Shadow Dragon Slayer, and he and Shuhei had together formed the Twin Dragons of Blue Pegasus. She wasn't nearly as strong as Shuhei, but now that she had absorbed that lachrima it might be time to discuss certain things with him. Although the first and foremost question would remain: why wasn't he undergoing dragonfication like her? Or was he simply hiding it? If there were ways to hide it Akeya could stand to benefit from learning them. She wasn't ashamed about the path she had chosen, and considered herself quite beautiful as a half dragon, but being able to disguise yourself as a normal human was quite a useful skill, especially for an assassin who preferred to strike without being detected.

Rising back up into the skies above Mount Helicon Akeya flew around, looking down at the ground as she looked for signs of Shuhei's presence. It was said that he visited the floating island of Blue Pegasus quite often, so if she wanted to meet him and talk to him this was the best location to be, especially if she didn't feel like revealing the contents of the conversation to everybody in the guild. When he had still been the guild master she could also have just walked into his office, but ever since he had given his position to Zack finding him had become a bit more tricky. Especially since he could basically travel at light speed to wherever he wanted to be. So she would either find him here, or she could wait for him a couple of days on Mount Helicon and he'd eventually show up anyway.

As Akeya had somewhat expected, when she finally found Shuhei it was because there suddenly appeared a bright light out of nowhere, making her really glad that she had gone through the trouble of getting herself those magical tattoos which protected her eyes against excessive light. Before she had those tattoos her eyes had been very sensitive to any type of light stronger than what one could encounter at dusk, forcing her to nearly permanently wear a blindfold to prevent being blinded by something as ordinary as the morning sun. Now she could watch Shuhei do his usual stuff of acting like a beacon without even having to blink. She was quite grateful that her magic research had allowed for her to figure out how to make these magic tattoos work, even though she had to get someone else to actually apply the tattoos.

Well, that wasn't important right now. What was important was that she had found Shuhei, and that she had needed to talk with him. She wasn't sure if it was urgent or not, but if you didn't know whether it was urgent you were always better off assuming it was. After all, dedicating your time and hurrying for something which was of low priority and could be held off for quite a bit at most meant that you had finished doing something a lot earlier than was actually necessary, and maybe some frustration at the knowledge that you had worried and exerted yourself when you didn't have to. If you took your time and avoided putting effort into something, only to learn that it required a lot of effort and dedication and had to be finished a lot earlier than you had anticipated you lost a lot more than some energy and time. Better to always try to get your work done as quickly as possible, so as to avoid getting into a situation which you could have easily avoided.

Folding her wings Akeya entered a dive, steadily and quickly descending towards where she had seen the flash of light. Shuhei was fast, so by the time she reached that spot he might already have moved away, but with some luck he would stick around for long enough for her to draw his attention. Although she wasn't sure if he would wait to talk to her anyway. She was an attractive female, which worked in her favour, but on the other hand she hadn't ever really given him as much attention and respect as most other females of her age. Granted that was because a lot of the females around her age were busy being seduced by the white mage, but still. Combining her rather focused and cold personality with her previous encounters with him and he might leave just because he didn't feel like talking to her. If that happened Akeya would be in trouble, since if Shuhei didn't want to talk to her she didn't really have a way to make him talk to her (at least, any method which she had any confidence in. She could always try appealing to his libido but she suspected that Shuhei was a bit too intelligent for that to work). This was one of those situations where she really didn't have any choice but to depend on luck. She wasn't a fan of these situations. Luck basically meant that she was helpless and just had to hope that things happened to work in her favour. As a mighty half dragon and trained assassin Akeya didn't like the concept of helplessness.

Once she was close enough the half dragon spread her wings to halt her descend, hovering above the clearing and observing the situation below. The first thing she noticed was that there were a lot of small craters filling the field, which made it obvious that something recently had happened. If these had been old craters they would already have plants growing in them. And they wouldn't all have at least one centaur lying in the exact middle. Either something with enough strength to make craters had been used to hit all the centaurs (they did all look unconscious, although not exactly wounded), or something had launched all the centaurs with enough strength for them to create small craters upon landing (that did sound more likely. If they had been attacked they would have wounds. All of these centaurs looked fine, if unconscious). The second thing she noticed was that the man that she had been looking for was standing in front of the area littered with craters, looking rather nonchalant and amused as he laughed at the subjugated centaurs. As usual Shuhei was showing off his ability to keep himself enjoyed, although this time neither drink nor women were involved (actually drink was involved, but Akeya didn't know that). Sensing no threat nearby the half dragon landed a couple of meters away from the White Mage, bowing slightly as greeting. There was an older centaur beyond the unconscious ones, but he seemed content just lying there glaring at Shuhei. Akeya herself also glared, although for her that was just her default expression, something which Shuhei was most likely aware of.

"Greetings. I have come to find you because I have something to discuss with you, and a question to ask."

Akeya indicated herself, displaying all of her draconic traits: the sharp fangs at the corners of her mouth. The emerald reptilian eyes which seemed to always drill holes in whatever they were looking at. The large batlike (but scaled) wings that grew from her shoulder-blades, large and powerful enough to lift her Amazonian body and grant her proper flight. The tapered and flexible tail, covered in tough scales which could be used both as a third hand and as a deadly weapon, either a spear or a whip. The midnight blue scales, which covered not only those extra limbs, but also her back, her sides, her arms from the elbows down, her outer thighs and her legs from the knees down, and even her cheeks as if exotic freckles. The long and sharp nails, almost like miniature claws, which had replaced the much shorter and duller nails that humans possessed merely to protect their fingers and toes. The spinal fins which now served as her ears. Seeing how these days her choice of attire didn't cover much other than her large bust, her nether regions and her behind all of these things were quite easy to spot, although since Akeya had sought Shuhei during the evening her natural affinity with the shadows and the darkness meant that her form was partially hidden anyway.

"As you can see I have already progressed quite far onto the path of becoming a dragon. The process had already started quite a while ago, but ever since I recently acquired and consumed a Shadow Dragon Lachrima it has accelerated. The changes are not only cosmetic: I can feel that my entire being has changed, losing human traits in favour of those of the mighty dragons. However at the same time you, who has been a Dragon Slayer for many times longer, still appear to be largely human. I was born with the blood of dragons, and my soul was found to be similar to that of a dragon as well. However even taking that into account, it still does not make sense that I have progressed much farther than you on this path. Do you have any knowledge on why this is the case? Are you simply hiding your own transformation, finding it easier to deal with humans if you appear to be more like them?"

While she spoke the half dragon's eyes narrowed, studying Shuhei intensely. From what she could tell it was quite likely that Shuhei had in fact progressed farther than her, and was simply hiding it. In which case she would have to learn how to hide it as well, to make her infiltrations of enemy areas more successful. However if he didn't know then this search had been useless.