Kael and Nidhogg sat side by side on one of the long sofas in the east library, both with the posture of survivors of emotional warfare. The silence between them wasn’t comfortable, but it wasn’t hostile either. It was the silence of two people who had just survived twenty-three full minutes of continuous lecturing from Elion without a single pause for breath. The entire library still seemed heavy with the absurd pressure of her mana, spread across the dark wooden walls like a physical warning that this woman’s patience had very specific and dangerously unstable limits.

Kael remained sunken into the sofa, elbows resting on his knees, staring at the floor with a completely blank look. The golden glow beneath his skin still appeared occasionally, mainly around his neck and hands, but at that moment he seemed too tired even to worry about it. Nidhogg stood beside him in a surprisingly composed position, legs crossed, arms resting on his lap, and an expression far too neutral for someone who had just received detailed threats involving magical castration, runic exorcism, arboreal imprisonment, and something extremely specific about Yggdrasil branches being used to "correct degenerate draconic behavior."

Elion remained standing before them, holding a wine glass that had clearly been empty for several minutes. She didn’t seem to have noticed this yet.

"Do you have any idea," she asked slowly, with the dangerous calm of someone on the verge of an elegant collapse, "how difficult it is to threaten an ancient dragon while your own son seems to have been spiritually screwed to the magical core?"

Kael slowly raised his eyes.

"Technically, I participated in the activity as well."

"Don’t help."

"Fair enough."

Nidhogg opened her mouth to speak, but immediately closed it when Elion’s gaze slid toward her like a sharp blade. Silence lasted for a few seconds.

Then Elion took a deep breath through his nose before slowly pointing at the dragoness.

"You." His voice came out too controlled. "How long exactly did you plan to sleep with my son?"

Kael closed his eyes immediately.

Because that question would never end well.

Nidhogg, on the other hand, seemed genuinely thoughtful. She brought a finger to her cheek while tilting her head slightly, clearly reflecting on the question with worrying honesty.

"A good few years? I mean, when he was six he was so adorable that I—"

She stopped.

Instantly.

Elion’s eyes began to glow with such an absurd golden intensity that small runes appeared around her arms almost involuntarily. The temperature in the library dropped several degrees at the same time as the ambient mana began to vibrate dangerously.

Nidhogg discreetly cleared her throat.

"I fell in love when he found me hiding." The silence that followed was almost physical.

Kael slowly turned his head toward her.

"...What do you mean?"

Nidhogg looked away for a split second before sighing.

"Like I said before, Kael... we’ve known each other for a long time."

"No," he replied immediately. "We literally met today."

She gave a small, tired smile.

"You met me today." Her golden eyes turned to him with an eerie calmness. "I’ve known you for years."

Elion remained completely still on the other side of the room, still dangerously close to conjuring some kind of emotionally driven nuclear magic, but even she seemed curious now.

Nidhogg slowly crossed her legs before continuing.

The small smile that lingered on her lips now seemed distant, almost nostalgic. For the first time since Kael had met her that night, she didn’t seem like a primal entity toying with mortals. It sounded like someone reminiscing about a life too old to still matter.

"A long time ago," she began calmly, "I managed to open a small crack in the spatial rift between my domain and the physical world."

Kael remained silent as she spoke. Even Elion stopped twirling the empty goblet between his fingers.

"The Original Realm isn’t exactly... connected to the rest of reality." Nidhogg rested his face in his hand as he gazed distractedly at one of the library shelves. "Yggdrasil and I exist separately from the normal flow of the world. The tree keeps the dimensional roots stable, and I remain bound to its domain." Her tone grew slightly drier. "Or I remained."

She let out a small sigh before continuing.

"Back then I was still searching for ways to completely cross the barrier. Not because I wanted to destroy something. I just..." She hesitated for a second. "I was tired of being alone."

The silence in the room grew heavier after that.

Nidhogg didn’t dramatize the sentence. There was no self-pity in her voice. Just a simple fact, spoken by someone who had existed long enough to make solitude a part of her routine.

"After many years of trying, I managed to open an extremely small passage." She raised two fingers close together. "Tiny. Unstable. And the world rejected almost my entire existence when I crossed it."

Kael frowned slightly.

"Rejected?"

"Primordial entities don’t belong to the physical plane." She replied immediately. "Reality compresses our existence to something it can tolerate." Her golden gaze slowly returned to him. "Then my form turned..." She seemed genuinely offended. "...into a ridiculous blue lizard."

Elion slowly brought her hand to her face to hide a tired smile.

"Divine justice," she murmured.

Nidhogg completely ignored her.

"I wanted to visit you," she continued, looking at Elion now. "It’s been a long time since we last met directly. I thought maybe..." She shrugged. "Maybe talking would be better than continuing to silently observe dimensions."

"Elion let out a small, dry laugh."

"Talking." She rested her head on her hand. "You showed up hidden in my fortress for three months stealing smoked meat from the kitchen."

"I was adapting."

"You bit one of the guards."

"He tried to touch my tail."

Kael blinked slowly.

Then another very old memory surfaced in his mind.

Small. Fragmented.

A blue lizard constantly appeared near the lower training field. Dark blue scales gleamed in the forest light. Golden eyes silently watched as Eleanor forced him to repeat sword forms until his arms ached.

Kael immediately raised his head.

"...Wait."

Nidhogg looked at him.

"...Now I remember."

Her gaze softened immediately. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Remember?"

"When I was six years old." Kael slowly squinted as he tried to organize the old memories. "A blue lizard always appeared near the training field." He slowly turned his face to Elion. "Eleanor saw it too."

Elion nodded without surprise.

"She saw it."

Kael frowned.

"But she never said anything."

"Because there was nothing to say."

Nidhogg answered before she could.

"There’s no normal way to detect something that the world itself doesn’t recognize." She slowly crossed her arms. "People could see me. They could perceive physical presence. But associating that with my true existence was impossible."

Kael remained staring at her in silence.

Nidhogg continued calmly:

"The physical plane rejected my primordial nature so aggressively that even magical perception failed." She gave a small, wry smile. "To any rational person, I was just a strange lizard following a child through the forest."

"You were following me," Kael repeated slowly.

"Constantly."

"That sounds extremely criminal."

"I was curious."

"You were spying on a child."

"Technically I was spying on Elion." She replied immediately. "You were just always nearby."

Elion let out a short, tired laugh.

"A blatant lie." She pointed at Nidhogg without even opening her eyes. "You completely ignored my existence as soon as he appeared."

Nidhogg didn’t deny it.

Because he couldn’t deny it.

Kael now remembered more things. The blue lizard appearing when he trained alone. When he skipped classes. When he hid near the lower forest to avoid political meetings. Always silently observing.

Never aggressive.

Just present.

"You fed her," Elion said casually.

Kael slowly turned his head.

"...What?"

"You stole food from the kitchen every week." She finally opened her eyes to face him. "I thought you’d gotten some hidden animal."

Nidhogg seemed discreetly pleased.

"You brought dried meat." She rested her chin on her hand again. "And once you tried to give me cake."

Kael immediately seemed offended.

"The cake was good."

"It was terrible."

"You ate it all."

"Because you got sad when I thought it was bad."

The silence that followed was strange.

Lighter.

Kael stared at Nidhogg for several seconds as extremely old memories slowly resurfaced. The small blue lizard appearing out of nowhere among enormous roots. The golden eyes watching him practice bad magic. The constant feeling of being watched even when he was alone.

He had never been afraid of it.

He had never even considered it strange.

Now he understood why.

Nidhogg watched him silently as well. There was something vulnerable in her expression now. She didn’t seem comfortable admitting all of this aloud.

"You talked a lot," she said after a while.

Kael raised an eyebrow.

"I was six years old."

"Exactly." Her smile widened slightly. "You would sit near me and complain about the training, the classes, the nobles, the guards." She tilted her head slightly. "Once you spent forty minutes explaining why you hated math."

"I still hate it."

"I know."

Elion watched the two in silence for a few seconds before finally sighing.

"So while I was busy..." She slowly massaged her forehead. "...my son was emotionally adopting an ancient dragon hidden in the garden."

"Technically," Nidhogg said calmly, "I was the one who adopted him."

Elion immediately pointed at her again.

"You remain quiet."