Nuclear Winter (Part II)

“Hence why they didn’t bother asking you seeing as you’re not a real queen anyways, just an artificial puppet.  You truly are just the Princess of the Catalaphyllia Dragons, by the way, whatever happened to them all?”

Zelus’s gaze communicated her cold rage, “Tethys.”  She said, her voice trembling with anger.  “We’ve went over this dozens of times: don’t mention it.”

The cyan haired teen shrugged, her smirk still present, “Okay, little princess.  Anyways the bindings were connected to your core thing, so in order to use the full extent of my power I needed it gone.  This includes the human transformation~”

Zelos winced, her previously clenched hands slowly loosening, “How did you even manage to function like that?  Being able to change your form is the very basics of a dragon’s magic.  Either way, I haven’t heard of a spell that could bind a queen anyways.”  The miko dressed dragon’s glare intensified, “Is this some sort of convoluted joke or something?”

However, the harsher tone Zelos spoke with had quite the opposite effect, Tethys clutching her chest as if she were having a heart attack.  “Ugh, shrine maiden plus hime style hair plus angry glare!  Please spare me Zelos, it fits you too much!  If you had black hair and eyes you might’ve killed me right here.”

“Yeah, I hope it fits me.  You were the one who chose this outfit for me.”  Zelos sighed, finally taking a seat in the armchair across from Tethys.  “Now I remember how hard it is to talk to you at times.”

“Wait, I put you in it?  Wow, me in the past was a real pleasure seeking daredevil.  The quality of eye candy is only increasing with every moment.”

“...that outfit… wrong…”  The spectre, who had chosen to be silent throughout the previous conversation between the two dragons, finally interjected.

Zelos's face, after having heard its words, transitioning from confused to slightly panicked in an instant.  “Wait, just what’s wrong with what I’m wearing?!  I asked Tethys to pick something out for my humanoid form since she knew more about human tendencies than I did, but she put me in something weird?!  Please tell me that’s not the case, cause I’ve been walking around in this for several millennia and-”

“Oh right, Psi is here too.  It’s just so hard to notice you when you’re not standing right in front of me.”  Tethys exclaimed, interrupting the still worried Zelos in the middle of her spiel.  “You were always the quiet type, but having your soul split into itty bitty pieces certainly did not help.”  The cyan haired teen turned to the shrine maiden, “By the way, could you fix our little ghost here so that she can at least project her form?”

Zelos huffed, crossing her arms before sinking deeper into the armchair.  “Sure, if you give me the formula.”  She was probably still cross about the whole outfit thing, but her curiosity over what she missed during her hibernation outweighed it.  Promptly, as soon as Zelos spoke, Tethys raised her pointer finger and instantly drew a magic circle in the air.  It was full of many intricacies that it would usually take more than half a second to create, but thus was the advantage of magic.  The only reason Zelos couldn’t do it herself was because her semi-hibernation mode, the same thing that made her slightly transparent, also limited her power.  Despite this fact, her magic pool was still so monstrous it was more efficient for the Catalaphyllia queen to cast the spell.

And as soon as Zelos used the magic circle, a blinding light consumed the room.  Once it finally died down, a third party had joined the room, although they had technically always been there.  “Good afternoon, shishou, I’m glad you’re in good health.”  The previously monotone and androgynous voice of the spectre was now… still monotone.  However, said voice was the kind that would sound nice while laughing, despite how rare said expressions of emotion were rare.  And this voice belonged to a short girl with vivid tangerine colored hair braided loosely into short twintails.  However, she was still a lot taller than Althea.  Psi had round, nutmeg eyes and was dressed in a traditional, frilly maid uniform.  But most notably, she had a pair of dog ears and a long bushy tail, both matching the color of her hair.

Zelos’s electric blue eyes narrowed as she looked over the new addition to the room, but Tethys was doing the same with a grin on her face.  “Stoic, ice cold maid Psi~  Ahh, I wish you’d step on me!  I also wished you called me goshujin-sama instead of shishou…”

Psi’s deadpan eyes began checking if everything in her projection was in order: both hands had five fingers, her tail was of appropriate length, her skirt was in order, things of those sorts.  Then, she finally turned to Tethys.  “No.”  She said plainly with a crisp bow before turning her attention to the other water dragon queen.  “It’s a pleasure to meet you face to face Zelos, Queen of the Catalaphyllia Water Dragons.  I am Psi, designation of Sign 23, the komainu.  I consider Tethys my shishou, however, she is technically no longer with the current state of my soul.”

“Ah, okay, nice to meet you- WHAAAAT?”  Zelos got up from her armchair.  “W-W-What the heck Tethys?  Are you insane?  You made one of the Signs your apprentice?!  You know once one gets involved all the other ones will too!”  If the elder dragons were at the height of the draconian affinity, the Signs were the height of the earthy one.  Not in the sense they all used rocks, but that they were as “of Earthland” as anyone could ever get.  Besides, of course the planet itself.  For one thing, that means that Psi had absolutely zero draconian affinity, but Tethys made her an apprentice anyways.  It was true that the Sign’s would would be able to survive making a connection with Tethys’s, but it also meant they wouldn’t even be able to learn slayer magic.  So what even would be the point?

“Oh, don’t worry about it too much, it all worked out besides the fact Psi died!  It was part of the whole campaign to seal me here, y’know?  I didn’t think they’d have the nerve, so I didn’t set up any precautions against it.  My bad Psi!  At least your soul persisted, right?”  Tethys said, rubbing the back of her neck while innocently gazing at the komainu maid.

“Shishou, I was stuck there for years.  If I wasn’t a Sign I would’ve gone mad.”  It was true that the Signs were granted several Blessings of Terra, but none of them prevented them from losing their mind.  It was just that they had lived for so long that they didn’t perceive time the same way creatures like humans did.  “I won’t stay angry at you, however I am annoyed about the outfit thing.  You too had picked this dress for me, insisting it was something the average person wore, but the moment I went into a town I got plenty of odd questions.”  She cast her cold gaze towards Zelos for an instant before returning it to her master, “It’s clear you do this to anyone you give fashion advice to, shishou.  How long until your new apprentice is affected by your weird taste?”

“Twintails, tsundere, thigh high black stockings, miniskirt.”  Tethys chanted as if it were a curse.  “Too bad it won’t stick around like that.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Zelos exclaimed, slightly frantic. Tethys had finally found the one in a million person who could learn dragon slayer magic from her, but was going to let her do some harm? “Is she going to die? I still need to pay her back for the anchor.”

“Oh, no, that wasn’t what I was talking about. You wouldn't get unless I explained it from the very beginning, a lot happened in the span of a very short period of time.” Tethys explained, stretching her body across the sofa. “You might’ve already noticed, but the brat really isn’t normal. In the first place, I’m not even sure if she’s a brat or not. Do you know just how many years she’s been claiming to be fifteen years old for? I tried asking her about it once, and the kid had the nerve to say, ‘I’m not answering that question. In exchange I won’t ask you any question I wouldn’t want directed at myself’. I am seriously a saint for taking care of her for so long.”

“When Thea-sama and I met, she was able to get past the soul targeting trap in the statue that housed me almost instantly. Then she continued to change the state of my soul, from alternating containers to binding me to your abode, shishou.” Psi poke, standing behind the cyan haired form of Tethys.

Zelos’s eyes narrowed as she slowly led herself back into armchair. “Where did you find her? The reading I got on her was absolutely indiscernible.”

“Oh, she’s usually not like that. Thea’s a stickler for her magical power, so when she’s at her A-game I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between her and a human. However, she’s going through a bit of a hiccup at the moment, so you caught her at the right time.” Tethys said, her visage once again putting her irritating expressions on full display. “When I first met Althea, it had been a good amount of time since I got sealed here…”

- ♢ -

Tethys drew random magic circles in the air, her serpentlike body curled up into a nice warm coil. She seriously didn’t understand shy she had gotten sealed in such a boring location such as Phoenix Mountains by the rest of the queens, maybe they were trying to bore her to death. Nonetheless, once in awhile things of slight interest occurred. For example, at that very moment two strange magical signatures were headed straight towards her. But it was highly unlikely that they’d happen into Tethys’s small dominion allowed her in the mountain range. So, Tethys instead chose to entertain herself through guessing how long it would take them to survive in the harsh wilderness.

This, however, never came into fruition because that pair continued to stick to the mountains for months on end, seemingly determined to touch every piece of dir on all the peaks. That is until they finally had the pleasure to come within range for Tethys to transport them straight to herself.

After the deed had been done, the two individuals found themselves within Tethys’s dazzling gaze, her dragon from floating around in all its glory before them. “Greetings, lower beings. I am Tethys, Queen of the Euphyllia Water Dragons. I request you to explain-”

“Queen? Are you sure? I’ve met a queen before and she gave me the impression they have, y’know, subjects to boss around.” The speaker was a chestnut haired teenage girl with fox ears and a tail, her green eyes sparkling with amusement. “What’s wrong with your dominion, it’s super tiny, are you sure you’re an elder dragon? I heard there was supposed to be one around here, but could you just be a fake?”

“...Hah?” Tethys said, letting a bit of bloodlust leak out. She knew that the customary greeting the water dragon queens gave was super long winded and prone to being interrupted, but still!

The kitsune continued to stare Tethys down, but thankfully the little blonde girl next to her was scared out of her mind. “U-Um, onee-chan, it th-that a dragon?” She whimpered, latching onto the older girl’s shorts that really weren’t fit for cold weather. On the other hand, the blue eyes loli was decked out in full winter gear but still looked more cold than the kitsune who might as well be in her underwear.

“Shut up Ku, stop latching to me.” The kitsune said coldly, roughly shoving away the young girl. The blonde’s spirit dropped to a noticeable degree but that only caused the older girl the smirk. “Say Ku, do you want to go back into the blizzard? It could serve as more training.” The little girl stiffened, hastily shaking her head. “Good, then stop talking.” The chestnut haired teen finally turned to face Tethys, her arms crossed. “Hey, I’m Rho, nice to meet you dragon. Make this blithering fool your apprentice, alright?”

Tethys stared at the duo’s sincerely weird interaction, but it was such a hot mess she really didn’t need details. However, the rude kitsune’s offer had a lot of problems. It was reasonable to ask a dragon for mentorship in dragon magic if you ever had the fortune to meet one good enough. However, making a connection with Tethys’s souls was enough to put more or less everything under the sun into a mess of slush. So, it would be appropriate to explain this to the other party before they consented to become a slushie. “That’s-”

“Wait, you should be the dragon who kills the people it apprentices, right? Then I came to the right shabby hole.” Rho grin widened, her sharp canines on full display. “Make her your apprentice anyways. It’ll be fine.”

“As I’m looking at the loli, I don’t think she’d be able to bear the burden of connection. You on the other hand… wow, what are you? Seriously, your plate is actually growing every second.” Tethys remarked, leaning in closer to get a better look at the kitsune.

However, Rue didn’t seem to take too kindly to this sudden spike of interest.  “Hey, if you can get a rough idea of my true nature, look at the little beast.  I didn’t come here to get entangled with you, dragon.  She did.”  The dragon queen cast a doubtful gaze at the little girl, starting to feel tempted to just force this Rue person into becoming her apprentice.  However, she was willing to at least have a closer look if someone with such a hardy soul said so.  Not many things were able to fool the eyes of a dragon, but maybe, just maybe.

“...no way.”  Tethys muttered as she gazed into the depths of the blonde.  Or at least, she tried to.  It was as if the closer she tried the look, the farther away she was from coming to the very core of the soul.  “What the heck is this supposed to be?  This girl is-”

“Yeah yeah, I don’t care.  More importantly she can handle the burden of forming a connection.”  Rho once again insisted, her impatience starting to leak out.  Honestly, Tethys would still prefer Rho shose magic signature she could understand over this mysterious child.  But still, beggars truly couldn’t be choosers.  She had just been left with something rather interesting, whether it was good or bad.  A connection was formed almost immediately, and the little blonde girl became Tethys’s mentee in water dragon slayer magic.  “Okay, that’s my que to leave, right?  You dragons don’t want me to know how you teach?”

“Yeah, I’d appreciate it if you scrammed and never came back.”  Tethys said plainly, trying to think of where to start her lesson.

“Wow, you switched your tone real quick after getting an apprentice.”  Rho remarked, holding her hands behind her back as she inspected some of the crystals attached to the cave walls.

“Well, you're my apprentice’s older sister, so you’re like family now, right?  Oh, that’s right, your name is Ku?”

“Only Rho can call me Ku.  Get your own way to refer to me.”  The loli who had previously been crying and shivering in silence suddenly said.  Her tone was unnaturally icy, and the fact the dragon had just heard a kid speak those words was already questionable.

“Hey Ku, how about you shut up?”  Rho said, glaring at the younger girl.  In a flash all traces of her previous magic disappeared, the previous scared youth replacing her.  “Anyways, you can just call her ‘brat’ until she insists otherwise, ‘kay?” The kitsune finally said before disappearing into thin air, seemingly having instantaneously exited Tethys’s domain.

All that was left was the dragon and the strange young girl, but Tethys wasn’t about to let this opportunity go to waste.  “Hey kid, want to try on some nice clothes?”

“No.  I like what Rho gave me.”  Ku replied frankly, shifting her blank eyes from the ground to the dragon.

“Haahh, I don’t have a name to call you, you don’t wear the clothes I ask you to, what am I going to do with such an unreasonable mentee?”  The eastern style dragon shook her head in exasperation.  “I didn’t want to tell your older sister you can’t handle this, but…”

“Don’t, I won’t be bothering her.  Now where are my school uniforms…?”

- ♢ -

“And that brings us to the present day!  Basically, I didn’t find Thea.  She showed up on my doorstep.”  Said Tethys as she quickly wrapped up her tale.

“Shishou, you said you couldn’t explain it unless you went into deep detail, but I think just that would have summarized the whole thing.”  The stoic maid replied, her eyes half closed.

“Oh, come on!  I don’t have anyone to reminisce about the past with!”  Tethys cried, turning around to latch onto Psi’s frilly skirt.

“Conversely, I think I need more information.”  Zelos said, her hand placed on her chin in deliberation.  “You said she and that Rho character were on Phoenix Mountain because they were looking for you, but how could they have heard about you?  None of the queens would’ve willingly released more information.”

“I think you just answered your own question, princess.  They didn’t do it by their own terms.  Not sure how, but that fox must’ve bamboozled some of the old lizards.”  Tethys let out a deep sigh, sinking into her sofa.  “In the first place, the only reason they asked me specifically was because I didn’t have any dragons under my rule, although I don’t know why.  What I do know was that Thea learnt my magic in order to balance the other two she already had.”

Zelos’s eyebrows raised in surprise, “Huh?  What other magics?  I think I’ve only seen her use one though.”  She glanced at Psi, but the komainu only shook her head.

“Ah, that has to do with her hiccup, don’t worry about it.  She actually has three, including Water Dragon Slayer Magic.”  Tethys droned, jesting her chin in her palm.  “The other one it ‘Today’s Forecast’ and her oldest one was… well she never told me what it's called, so…”

Psi's otherwise stagnant expression showed signs of confusion.  "Today's Forecast...?  Could it be...?"  She turned a sharp gaze to Tethys, "That's the same name as the magic used by Resh, another one of the Signs.  However, unlike most of us, they were... volatile.  At least that's what I've heard of them."

“Oh?  I’m not familiar?  However, I do find it concerning Rho’s involving herself in the water dragon queens as well as the Signs.  Might be more trouble than it’s worth, you know, Tethys?”  Zelus sighed, placing her feet up on the coffee table.

“Zelus-dono, to be fair even though I don’t have the resources to use Today’s Forecast.  Of course, I haven't seen it in person, but you need a special kind of affinity for it.”

It was then, as if to prevent the conversation between the three from reaching any new conclusions, a burst of magic power dosed the entirety of the Phoenix Mountains.  Zelus got to her feet and manifested an axe in apprehension for what could be a hostile encounter, but Tethys remained calm.  “Ah, seems like the fun time is over.  The brat got over her little hiccup.”  She remarked lightly as they began experiencing slight tremors.  “By the way, what you’re feeling right now is aether.  Pure unfiltered aether.  It took a lot of observation, but I found out Thea is absolutely stacked with the stuff.”  Tethys let out yet another sigh, crossing her legs as she tried assuming a more comfortable position on the couch.  “That magic, her innate one, the attribute is aether.  Don’t know how the element incompatible with life is being used by a living being, but that’s part of the intrigue!”  She let out a short laugh, “Hey, whether this end up being good or bad, you guys are stuck with me, ‘kay?”

“Shishou, that wasn’t even an option for me in the first place.”

“Urgh, so unfair!  My hibernation is still ongoing, can’t I just wake up my body somehow… ergh!”

Finally, the topic of their previous discussion had finally arrived.  Unlike how Psi and Zelos had first seen her, the young girl seemed more prepubescent, and her red eyes had turned blue.  But even more shocking was how her magical signature had completely changed, even the Cataphyllian queen couldn’t sense anything amiss in the disguising of the truth.

“Hey guys, crazy earthquake, right?”