The morning came swiftly, and the group awoke, slurped down some clearcool elixirs, and gathered up. Tristan used his paired spells Wing Glide and Dragon Leap to carry Eloise across the deserts of Brightmarch. Felicity remained perched on his head, and instead of following the obelisks, they went on a straight course to the east. As they glided, signs of destruction were scattered about. The enormous burrowing creatures had breached the surface of the desert dunes and died, their bodies exploding into the white, infectious sludge.

"Seems like it has spread pretty far," Felicity shouted over the wind as they sailed over the fifth creature slain by the disease.

Eloise nodded. "I just hope it hasn't reached other settled areas."

They had to land a few times for Tristan's crucible to refill. During those moments, they would walk along the sand, and Eloise guided Tristan in trying to isolate his essence crucible further. Refining his technique, as it were. She held his hand while he kept his eyes shut and listened to her instructions. He did not spend any essence, but was simply trying to master the ability to spin set portions of his crucible to enable the constant fueling of specific spells at the cost of his essence crucible's capacity.

It was a slow process. While two-direction spinning almost came naturally – Tristan reasoned because of his connection with the Fey Realm – he had a much more difficult time isolating a small sliver of his crucible to dedicate to a specific spell. Felicity, on the other hand, had no trouble with it. And the first thing she did was put Alter Form on Tristan, while crowing proudly about her prowess.

"I'm so skilled." She made happy paw-claw biscuits on his skull.

"You did pick it up quite quickly," Eloise commented.

"Mmm. Praise me more."

Tristan ignored the two conversing and measured his current essence. "I'm ready for another few jumps. Let's keep going."

It took a total of three days, and by the thirty-eight of Winds Season they reached the edge of the desert. The trip was, thankfully, without incident. But that did not bode well, as that implied that the Creampox had spread and killed off or driven out the wildlife. The sands gave way to prairies and grasslands, where the sand was hidden under the long reeds. The desert continued to give way to the lush grassland, and by the time evening began to fall they were past the warmer climes and beginning a slight, upward ascent. The rolling hills of lush grasslands spread out before them. Hills and dells created a series of interconnected ponds, rivers, and lakes that thrummed with life. Tristan saw fish swimming in the shallows, amphibians on the shores, basking on rocks, small game in the underbrush, and even some odd deer-like creatures with eight legs and massive tines atop their skulls.

They landed on a hill and Eloise sat down, patting the ground next to her. Tristan sat as well, and Eloise pointed further east. "I think tomorrow we'll hit the Tousles territory and see some buildings." She glanced around. "Good thing that the wildlife here is thriving. I don't think the disease escaped the desert – at least in this direction."

"Hope so!" Felicity said as she jumped off of Tristan's head and flew down the hill toward one of the ponds. "I'm getting some fish! Anyone want some?"

"Sure," Eloise said.

"I'm good," Tristan replied as he shut his eyes. "Keep an eye out, I'm going to my inner world."

Eloise gave him a pat on the back, and Tristan shut his eyes. He spun his crucible and envisioned his inner world. In the blink of an eye, he was standing on the flat, glass surface. Going to the tree, he placed his hand on it. "All right, show me where I'm at."

The glowing spiral filled up until it reached the fifth notch mark.

"Hells yes!" Tristan shouted in excitement. I can open another Vault when I get back to the Fey Realm, he thought. And I can start learning more from the Omnitome. But first . . . he looked around the space and spotted lots of dents. Far more than he was used to seeing. Huh. Maybe because of my training being so different? He shrugged and set to smoothing the surfaces. Once the whole crucible was nice and rounded out, he returned to the waking world, spun his crucible, and opened his Pocket Dimension II. Fetching the Omnitome, he began flipping through it.

Eloise had a series of black rocks piled in front of her that radiated a gentle heat, and Felicity had plucked, gutted, and skewered a few fish which were suspended over the hot rocks. "Smells tasty," Felicity said as her mouth watered.

Eloise nodded. "I told you spices would come in handy."

Tristan flipped open his book. What do I want to look up first? Oh, let's do Dragonbane. Maybe there's something for more permanent wings. He flipped to that section of the Omnitome and began reading.

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Breath Weapon - Greater (Fifth)

Spell Phrase: The power I took from you is now mine to wield, and it responds to my call! Feel its wrath fall upon you!

Spell Gesture: Hold your hand up to your mouth (or if you have a helmet on, where your mouth would be). Form the index finger and thumb into a ring, and bring the other fingers into line with the index finger. Exhale outward as you speak the spell phrase.

Other Notes: As Breath Weapon – Lesser and Breath Weapon – Minor. The exception is that this is even bigger for the area.

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Aspect of the dragon - Muscles (Fifth)

Spell Phrase: Your mighty strength will flow through me and lift me to heights never thought possible!

Spell Gesture: Put your hands into the shape of the letter C, using your index finger and thumb to form the shape, and run that C up your legs (ankles to groin) and down your arms (shoulders to wrists), with your hands ending in a forearm-handshake with the index fingers resting along the inside of the forearm of the opposite arm.

Other Notes: Do not use this spell if you intend to work on anything delicate. It lasts for ten minutes, and you can easily crush things you care for. Push the essence through your fingers.

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"Now that sounds interesting," Tristan said as he closed the tome and stood up.

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"What does?" Felicity asked as she pulled back from fawning over the fish.

Tristan leaned down, put his hands in the appropriate gesture, and ran them up his legs, and then moved them up his torso, to his shoulders, and as he brought his hands down along both arms, he muttered the spell phrase. As he spun his crucible and poured the essence as directed. As the spell phrase concluded and he held the final gesture, he could feel it. His armor felt incredibly tight, and he felt a little bit of pain along his limbs.

"You're bleeding!" Felicity said in panic.

Tristan glanced down and saw blood dripping out of the crevices of the armor. "Oh. Wow. Help me get this off." Felicity immediately flew over to him and helped him remove the gauntlet and then the rest of the armor covering his arm. His skin had cracked and broken in places, revealing deep, wiry muscle beneath that pulsated with every beat of his heart.

"That seems like a risky spell," Eloise commented.

Tristan leaned down, grabbed one of the heating rocks, and crushed it to dust with no effort. "I think I found a way to hit really hard."

"It seems like the spell might work better for someone who is not as muscular as you are already. I am curious what it compares to against your baseline physique."

Felicity was just looking at Tristan's cracked skin and bulging bicep muscle with concern. "That's a dangerous spell! I don't want you using it. You're hurting yourself."

Tristan frowned. "It's going to last for ten minutes."

She shook her head. "Gross! You shouldn't do a spell that hurts you."

"Well, while I'm this strong, may as well test something else. Help me get the rest of the armor off." Felicity set to work, and after a minute he was in his smallclothes. Tristan shoved his hand under his shirt, and spoke. "The very plates that protect you shall protect me as well!" He saw as the cracked skin smoothed over, replaced by flesh-colored scales. The slightly metallic grey of his skin shimmering in the fading sunlight. His whole body was covered in the little scales, and the pain immediately left him. "Looks like the spell is meant to work in conjunction with other Aspect of the dragon spells."

"What others do you have?" Eloise asked.

Tristan smiled and cast Aspect of the dragon – claws and – tail. His hands grew into draconic, razor-tipped talons, and the phantasmal tail that dragged behind him was far bulkier than before. It felt more responsive to his muscle movements, and he minutely moved his pelvis, watching as the phantom appendage swung out to his left like a cracking bullwhip that sounded with a loud snap!

Felicity whistled. "That's impressive. Now you just need a spell that combines all of them."

Tristan leaned down and grabbed the Omnitome, holding it delicately with his new claws. "There's higher Order versions that seem to keep adding onto it."

Eloise nodded. "I suspect your grandfather paid a powerful essence-weaver to help design these spells?"

"Yeah. A guy named Jacoby the Dim."

Eloise's face went slack in shock. "What?! You never said that your grandfather traveled with the greatest essence-weaver of all time!"

"The old fart's friend was that strong?" Felicity asked.

"He's what we'd call an idiot savant. An incredibly simple man, but his mind was unmatched when it came to essence-weaving." She gestured to Tristan's current form. "This looks like an incomplete spell. Partial fragments and pieces."

"Hmm . . ." Tristan put a clawed hand to his chin. "Are you suggesting he intended for the spells to be used together?"

Eloise sighed. "Let me see the original document."

"Grandfather's journal?" Tristan reached into the still-open Pocket Dimension II and pulled out the book, handing it to Eloise. She flipped through it with her expression starting out stern and disappointed, and then slowly shifting to be more and more impressed. "Well?" Tristan asked.

Eloise let out a slight, barking laugh. "Jacoby, you dim, brilliant man." She set the book down and gestured for Tristan's Omnitome. "Hand that to me."

Tristan did so, and thankfully the muscle spell faded, and he allowed the others to fade, as those did not carry a time limit. "What did you find out?" he asked as he grabbed his gear and began re-equipping it with Felicity's help.

"Jacoby hid an encoded spell. It's like a puzzle, of sorts. Something that essence-weavers will do if they want to keep their work secret." She looked at the Omnitome, back to the journal, and began scribbling with a pen she grabbed from her hip pouch. "Most essence-weavers who reach the title of Wizard or Archon will come up with their own spells. They often encode them. And Jacoby was no different. He hid a spell, within these spells." She continued scribbling, taking notes, and moving from spell to spell. "I have it!"

Tristan finished securing his gauntlet and sat down next to her. Felicity flew back to her fish on the stick and began taking little nibbles. "What did you find out?" she asked in between bites.

"Jacoby figured out a spell that lets you turn into a dragon. A full fucking transformation, performed through the consumption and integration of crucibles and blood. It's . . . it's really dangerous. Not only do you need to have consumed a dragon's essence crucible, but you also have to consume that same dragon's blood type. The size you can turn into correlates to the size of the creature when you harvested and drank its type of blood. But it's only dangerous for those who aren't of your bloodline. He made a fully bloodline-locked spell that only your grandfather and his descendants could use." She looked at Tristan with a look of awe. "It's the closest you could hope for in terms of a legacy that none else can possess."

"Holy shit," Tristan muttered. "I could turn into an adult dragon of the Elemental Realm of Fire?"

She looked at him with shock. "Wyrm size? When did you-"

"Hurvun had souvenirs. One of them was a bottle of Arch Dragon's blood. The one he killed, that counted as a feat to forge a bloodline. And I've killed an adult fire dragon. Drank that one's blood, too." He frowned. "I can't turn into an arch dragon size, since I haven't consumed one of their crucibles."

Eloise's face washed over with a look of enthusiasm mixed with dread. "You . . . you could theoretically use this spell. Turning into a dragon. . ." She glanced down at her notes in his Omnitome. "I think your bloodline has a lot of untapped potential when it comes to making more spells for the dragonbane spell type. You should spellcraft more in the Fey Realm."

"That's the term for just making spells, right?" Tristan asked.

"Mhmm. That is correct. Some people call them custom spells, but spellcraft is the academic term."

Felicity looked over at Tristan. "That's really neat! You could turn into one of them and fly us all around!" She was practically bouncing with delight, all thoughts of the fish stick she held in her hand forgotten as she waved it around like a conductor's baton. "You could do so many different ones! Fire, mind, water, demon, lightning, heavenly . . ." she frowned. "You've drunk a lot more blood, but not gotten crucibles."

The idea of taking the form of the creatures he was trained to fight was enticing to Tristan. If he was the same size, had the same assets as one of them, then he knew he could leverage his training of their weaknesses to become the most proficient dragonslayer of all time. "Are there any downsides?" he asked.

Eloise shook her head. "Jacoby was a genius. He thought of every possible issue. He even put in hybrid spells to blend the form of a person with a dragon – that's what those "Aspect of" spells are doing. They are like training wheels." She closed the two books and handed them back to Tristan, and he put them into his Pocket Dimension II before letting it shut. "I would advise you keep progressing as you are. That spell is Tenth Order, so you are yet a ways off from it. But each of those Aspect spells? You need to use those more frequently. Condition your body to the changes. The more familiar your body is with the shifting, the less strain it will cause down the line." She sighed. "He even did the theoretical framework for up to Twentieth Order spells, but that's completely unheard of. The highest I have ever heard of someone casting was Fifteenth Order. And even then, it almost killed them."

"Maybe he saw the potential in the bloodline's power," Felicity reasoned. "Dragons are the apex predators of most realms. If you lived for hunting them and consumed their crucibles, you would get powerful really quickly. Even in a human's lifetime, you could probably get a really powerful essence crucible."

"Perhaps." Eloise looked at Felicity. "Now where's my fish?"

Felicity looked at the skewer in her hand – now empty as the fish had flown off at her wild gesticulation. "Ah . . . oopsie! I can go catch more!"

Tristan chuckled and lay back on the grass. Turning into a dragon . . . who would've thought? But I'm a long way off from that. But playing around with making custom spells . . . what if I could combine all of the "Aspect of" spells I have access to? So many possibilities. He sighed and looked up at the darkening sky. There will be plenty of time for that after this business in the Demon Realm is concluded. For now, we need to set up the tent and get some rest. "Who is going to keep first watch?" Tristan asked.

Eloise stood up, "I'll do it. But we should get to flatter ground for the tent."

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