Sophia didn't expect much of Dav's upgrade. Hers was almost completely inconsequential compared to the first one, as was Ci'an's, so she figured Dav's would be the same.

She completely forgot that hers was as big as it was because it was where she picked up her Signature, while Ci'an simply decided to enhance one of hers that she'd already been building towards. Dav didn't have a Signature and had no idea what his would be, so of course it was more impactful.

It took Sophia a long moment to realize that the man walking towards her was Dav, even though he wore Dav's clothes. He wasn't wearing Dav's armor, which didn't help, and she didn't recognize the long leather jacket, but she was pretty confident that that was the shirt Dav wore that morning. That was definitely Dav, even if he looked different.

She should have expected it. His appearance changed with the first upgrade; it only made sense that it would change with the second. It sort of explained his armor, too; it was probably the jacket. It changed fairly frequently, as well, though why it seemed to have turned into ordinary clothing … well, it probably went with the rest of the change to Dav. He hadn't gone in the direction Sophia expected.

He looked completely human, without the scales she'd gotten used to. She hadn't known him for long before they were thrown through the Origin to the Broken Lands, but he looked a lot like he once had.

His eyes were different; she couldn't remember what color they once were, but she was pretty sure they hadn't been a gray so dark they were almost black. His hair was different, too, a black that turned purple when the light shone on it. His skin was a little darker, too, but that could easily be from the time they spent outside. Other than that, he looked very similar to what she remembered. It was possible he looked a little younger, but she wasn't sure of that; age could be hard to tell and she'd only known him for a couple hours before they reached the Broken Lands.

"What, do I have something on my face?" Dav lifted a hand as if he was waiting for Sophia to tell him where whatever-it-was was.

Sophia shook her head. "No, uh, the opposite? You look, uh, human?"

"Excuse me, what?" Dev looked puzzled.

It was like he didn't know, so Sophia quickly dug in her pack until she found a small hand mirror. She held it up for him, then realized he couldn't see and walked it over to him.

Dav took the mirror, looked in it, and seemed to freeze in place with a complicated expression on his face. Sophia was certain she wouldn't have been able to read it without the psychic mesh's help, but as it was she could tell that he felt surprised, happy, and regretful, all at the same time. Some of it was his body language, but Sophia was pretty sure that he was leaking emotions as well.

Dav liked being human; it was how he saw himself. At the same time, his nonhuman features had become almost a record of his accomplishments, of the things he'd overcome. It was like losing a scar from something important; he was glad it was gone and regretful that he no longer had the evidence of what he'd been through, all at the same time.

"You look like I felt the first time I put on a Mask," Jax said with a grin. "I'd disguised myself before, of course, but that was the first time the disguise was me without looking like me. The Mask made the disguise feel right, which made it seem wrong. Is it your Signature, too?"

Dav frowned, then shook his head. "I don't see how it can be. My Signature is Manifestation, and I'm not doing anything right now."

"Are you sure?" Jax's grin somehow widened. "Or maybe you really aren't doing anything now and were doing something before without realizing it? That's how it was for me; everything I was already doing in pieces became part of my Mask and instead of slowly shifting myself to become someone else, I can simply put on that Mask. It's the same thing, but easier and faster. Do you have one Ability that ties everything together?"

Dav shook his head. "They're all scattered, in several categories. I … don't know if all of the Abilities that changed my appearance were in one category or not. The ones I know did are in Eldritch Acuity, my Grand Ability, but it started before I even had my Sphere. I … it's weird, I thought those Abilities affected was I could see and hear, but I can still see mana, at least the mana from the fire fissure."

"Your eyes are a little lighter than they used to be, I think. Mana sight doesn't always mean a major visual change; it's common, not required. I can see mana and my eyes didn't change. Your armor's different than before, too," Sophia contributed. "But it changed pretty often. Why don't you try using one of your Calls and see what happens?"

"Hm." Dav glanced down, then looked solidly at Sophia. "Better to find out now."

Colorful streamers of purple, white, and blue light erupted from Dav's chest and wound quickly around him. For a moment, he was completely cocooned in light, like a magical girl transformation sequence. When the light cleared, it was like that visual effect in another way: the person that stood in his place did not look the same.

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He reminded Sophia of one of her teachers, a draykin, or dragon-man, except all in purple. His face had turned into a dragon's snout, covered in scales, with purple slitted eyes. A large brow ridge outlined each eye. At the rear of his face, the scales shifted from purple or an iridescent teal before they seemed to become long, stiff tufts of fur. His horns were a lighter purple, almost like they wanted to be silver but couldn't escape his overall hue. His neck was far longer than it had been and covered in scales. Some of the smaller scales on the sides of his neck seemed to have been replaced with softly glowing iridescent gemstones in the shape of scales.

Wings flared behind him. They looked feathered, at first, but a longer look revealed that the feathers were only present on the top of the wings; the inner surface of the wings was webbed like a bat's wings, though it was not flat in color. Instead, it looked like a deep purple with pale pink and blue lights twinkling in its depths, like stars in the night sky.

His hands were clawed, as were his feet, with legs that weren't straight. Sophia noted his digitigrade stance without surprise; that was how dragons stood, and Dav looked a lot like a man with draconic features. The skin of his arms and legs was purple, with scales in some places but not others. The areas without scales had bright purple lights moving inside it, almost like lightning, if lightning had a distinct tendency to stop and form balls temporarily before moving on.

His armor was, once again, different. There was an obvious black undergarment mostly covered by an oddly crafted breastplate. It looked like it was a single piece enameled in swirling shades that ran from purple to teal with other strips of metal added on top that seemed to connect to a large gem in the middle of Dav's chest shaped like a sideways eye that glowed in the colors that formed his cocoon earlier.

The starry influence of the Wanderer was obvious, but it seemed to come together in a cohesive, if strange, overall appearance. The only really odd thing about it was something that Sophia didn't notice until she tried to take in the entire effect.

Dav was floating.

He was less than an inch off the ground; in fact, it almost looked like his foot-claws touched the ground. He wasn't flying; he was just … floating there, barely above the ground.

Sophia frowned at Dav's feet. "Just which Call did you use?"

"Unreal Space," Dav answered easily as he flared his wings. He skidded forward and turned slightly away from Sophia, clearly unintentionally. He twisted in place to look at her, but he didn't actually have any traction. "This is trippy. I usually just use the Call to jump higher, but this is …"

Dav trailed off as he slid into one of the four large fireflower plants. "Um, I think I'm going to need practice before I use this one."

"Wings are terrible to learn," Ci'an agreed. "I might be able to help, though your lack of a tail … wait, you have a tail?"

Sophia snuck a look down. She hadn't even noticed, but Ci'an was right; Dav had a tail that emerged from his lower back. It was large where it started, probably almost as wide as one of Dav's thighs, but it narrowed to no more than an inch in diameter before it ended in a spray of feathers. It was hard to tell exactly how long it was, since Dav held it curled up behind his back, but Sophia's guess was that it was probably almost as long as Dav was tall.

"I bet you can really lean forward when you run or fight, but I'm not sure how much help it will be for flying." Sophia was a little worried about that, now; fighting depended on knowing where your body was and how it would move. A major shift in his balance like that tail could really set Dav off his game for a while, and adding a second form that he had to be able to fight in wouldn't make it any easier. For now, he could always fight with a Call active, but the slight delay as he transformed was a possible problem.

Dav let go of the flower and canceled his Call. He settled to the ground but did not return to his human shape. "I, huh. I can hold on to it now? I'm not Calling anything but I know I could. It's almost like there's something calling to me."

He searched for a moment, but his attention was almost immediately drawn by exactly the thing Sophia expected and yet hoped wouldn't draw his attention: the open fire mana fissure. "I think I can … OUCH!"

For a moment, Dav seemed to flash with multicolored fire. It rolled across him, turning his wings and horns into flames. His armor seemed to vanish, replaced with mana that roiled like flames beneath his skin and escaped as actual fire as it fled up his chest. His eyes turned to reservoirs of glowing heat and flame seemed to gather in his mouth.

A moment later, it was gone, leaving the once again human-looking Dav on his hands and knees in front of the fire mana fissure. He gasped and panted as if he'd been running.

Sophia darted forward and pulled Dav away from the fiery crack in the ground. She doubted it would grab him again, but getting him away from it couldn't hurt. It was hot there, as well, and she wasn't entirely certain how well his Eldritch Adaptation would stand up to it.

Dav was heavy. Sophia could only bless the Wisps she'd spent on her Body as they made it far easier for her to pull him back to safety.

"Remind me not to do that again," Dav told Sophia as he accepted a waterskin from Ci'an. "That sucked."

"What did you do?" Sophia glanced away from Dav for a moment to silently thank Ci'an. She was completely out of water, so it was good that Ci'an still had some.

"I think I inverted Eldritch Adaptation for a moment and grabbed the fire mana." Dav rubbed his temples as if he had a headache. "Only there was far too much and it overwhelmed me. I'm not even entirely sure how I did it; the Ability isn't supposed to work like that."

"You have to stretch Abilities to reach a Grand Talent," Jax supplied. "My Masks have their own Abilities that can be different from mine; I couldn't do that until I stretched my Masking Ability to include it and created my Talent. It's something to be careful with; you can really hurt yourself, and that means this is enough for today. We should head to Mazehold and check in at the Registry; that's where most newcomers go, so it's a good place to start and it will give us a good reason to not do anything tomorrow."

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