There was something particularly awkward about rendering a blood sample down to a single drop of blood while a dragoness inside a draconian body looked intently over my shoulder.

  I wish I could have dazzled Shaessath with my alchemical skills, or at least contributed to the process significantly in some way. Instead, I was just standing there and keeping an eye on the reaction. My biggest contribution had been the purchase of the beetle in the first place.

  I was thankful for Alys’ enthusiastic support of my alchemical studies, which had motivated her to provide such a generous original sample. Otherwise, I would have had to track her down and get more of her blood. As it was, I had just enough remaining to duplicate the formation of the original enhanced blood drop.

  I heard Shaessath’s startled intake of breath the instant the blood was condensed enough to trigger the reaction. Carefully, I transferred the blood drop to a new bottle and offered it to Shaessath.

  “Extraordinary…” The dragoness took the bottle reverently, examining the drop with as much intensity as she had examined the first one. Then she turned her eyes to the beetle. “And this is all thanks to a simple insect?”

  “I wouldn’t call the Flamecore Beetle ‘simple’, but yes. I’ve heard about special flames before, of course. But I would wager that even among those, the flames produced by a Flamecore Beetle are… well, special, for lack of a better word.”

  “Hrrrm. Special is a good word for it.” She stared at the beetle for one more moment, her gaze almost avaricious, before refocusing her attention on the drop of rendered blood.

  “Is there anything you can tell me about the blood?” I asked eagerly. “Or why the shift happened?”

  “It is a form of… I can’t rightly call it atavism, but the process is similar, I believe. The beetle’s flames appear to continuously refine whatever is exposed to them, and… hrm. What happens when the item is allowed to burn up?”

  I paused, then shrugged. I had fed the critter recently, but considering how much it had endeared me to my new extended family, it deserved a treat.

  “Here, let me show you.”

  Fetching a leaf of the mutated, flower-enhanced manchineel tree, I carefully dropped it into the beetle’s jar. The insect rushed for the food as eagerly as always. Its scarlet-colored flames surged forth until the leaf was reduced to ashes. The beetle then pounced on those, devouring them with all the haste its tiny body could muster.

  “The plant’s mana was completely sealed within those ashes,” The Molten Expanse breathed in wonder, reminding me that anything my own mana senses could spot, hers would likely pick up with far more ease.

  She did seem to be missing a few things an alchemist wouldn’t, however.

  “Not just the mana. All of the leaf’s properties, including the physical ones, are perfectly captured within the tiny bit of ash that’s left. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I ever tested what kind of effect the different properties of plants have on the beetle… An idea for later. Regardless, if you control the process, you get what I refer to as ‘purified’ ingredients. ‘Condensed’ just doesn’t cut it, since the properties intensify.” I shook my head, still a bit frustrated at my inability to find the right words. “And if you don’t control the process, you get those ashes.”

  Shaessath nodded shrewdly. “Again, extraordinary. And helpful. I imagine this makes it much easier to get ingredients of true worth. Especially out here on the frontier, where potent ingredients are already possible finds.”

  “Correct. We’ve found some truly valuable items already. Those flowers, for example, along with the honey, and the moss flowers the local bees collect pollen from to begin with. And all of that was done without pushing too far from the currently established ‘safe’ zones.”

  I grew more animated as I talked, feeling genuine excitement thrum through me. What could we find if we pushed further into the frontier? What sort of ingredients would I eventually have to play with? I didn’t know, but I was strongly looking forward to finding out.

  “Hrm.” She gave me a look of fond amusement. At least, I wanted to believe it was fond amusement. “About the blood…”

  I refocused instantly. “Yes?”

  “Unless I am mistaken, what happens to it mirrors the process of a draconian growing powerful enough, then attempting to reclaim the full draconic bloodline. This was something the ritual to create draconians was always meant to allow for, since its creator had no way of enabling his mortal mate to give birth to a full-blooded dragon safely.”

  “Then this drop of blood is the equivalent of a small step towards Alys becoming a full-blooded dragon?” I asked in disbelief.

  Shaessath’s smile was a blinding thing.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Yessss. I do believe so. It will not aid us directly, mind. But even this much is immensely helpful, and it will be invaluable when my granddaughter is finally ready to attempt the transition.”

  There was such surety in her voice now. We could and would help Alys reach her full potential. I felt myself being caught up in the dragoness’s excitement.

  A small part of me, however, paused.

  And then I did something potentially hazardous to my health.

  “If she wants to,” I said with conviction.

  The Molten Expanse froze, then raised her eyes to meet mine. I couldn’t read her expression at all, but I refused to look away.

  The smile that spread across her face caught me off-guard.

  “You are right. This will be invaluable for her… if she wants to embrace her draconic inheritance fully. Regardless, we can make sure my granddaughter grows stronger, and quickly at that, with the beetle you were lucky enough to acquire.”

  I let out a pleased (and considerably relieved) hum. Then, now that I was getting to know Shaessath and learning what would and wouldn’t offend her, I couldn’t stop my natural mischief from bubbling up to the surface.

  “You know… the merchant who sold us the beetle originally offered it to us as a way to heat our bath.”

  The Molten Expanse choked and clutched at her chest, almost dropping the bottle that contained the drop of blood.

  I couldn’t have held back my snickers if I’d tried.

  —

  Grandmother didn’t find this moment as funny as I did, but she didn’t set me on fire, either. Instead, she insisted that I show her all of the draconic ingredients I had gathered, and then offered her critique on my admittedly limited supply.

  She was not impressed.

  According to her, the draconic bloodline was absolutely minimal in all of the eel creature’s parts. It was only expressed as strongly as it was at all because the eel had managed to grow surprisingly old. She was even knowledgeable enough on the subject to point me towards the section of scale and bone that betrayed the age of draconic creatures.

  I soaked in the knowledge eagerly. In spite of all the reading material my family had on the subject, little of it had been as helpful or thorough as what Shaessath shared with me.

  Dragons took exception to being studied ‘like common livestock’, according to one of my books. No one was foolish enough to ask them to cooperate with a study aimed at uncovering the alchemical properties of their bodies. Such studies were still carried out, of course. But they were done in secret, using slain dragons, and it was frustratingly difficult to find the resulting books. Getting discovered by a dragon would mean the author’s swift and gory death. Some dragons were even known to unleash their wrath upon any collectors of such writings.

  Of course, I carefully didn’t ask Shaessath why she knew so much about the choicest bits of ingredients one could extract from her kin. Her knowledge seemed rather focused on… immediate consumption of said materials, let’s say. I was fairly certain she didn’t know that much about alchemy.

  “Hrm. This will not do,” she grumbled. “This will not do at all. Even with those flowers added in, the ingredients you have available are not particularly impressive. You would be counting on one or two ingredients to boost the potency of whatever potion you end up producing.”

  “Well… yes.” I spoke slowly, though I took great pains to ensure I didn’t come across as condescending. “That is actually what you want. Traditionally, every alchemical recipe has ‘main’ and ‘supporting’ ingredients. You pick out what you want to focus on, and then choose ingredients that can boost the potency of those main ingredients.”

  She didn’t look convinced. “This is simply not good enough for my granddaughter. I insist upon offering some supplementary ingredients myself. ”

  My shock was absolute. Then again, her intentions made sense. It wasn’t like slaughtering a dragon for parts would be simple, even for The Molten Expanse. Her own flesh and blood would be far more compatible with Alys anyway. Still, I did pause for a moment.

  Then I pounced on the opportunity.

  “And I would be happy to accept! I’m sure I can manage something. Who wants to follow established recipe rules anyway? I am simply far too limited in what I can acquire at the moment, and… draconic ingredients are always a rarity.”

  Her deadpan look was not amused, but it broke a moment later in favor of a headshake and a smirk. “Indeed they are. You will wait until we are done here and I can turn back to my true form, so I can provide you with some of my scales and flesh. For now, however, you will give me something that can properly hold my blood.”

  “Why are the women of your family so eager to give up their blood?” I groused, pulling out the largest sample bottle in my possession. It was almost the size of a regular wine bottle. Preservative runes completely covered its surface in a way that looked rather aesthetically pleasing, akin to frosted glass. “Do you know that when I first asked her for some, Alys immediately bled into my freshly empty juice cup?”

  Shaessath simply snatched the bottle from my hands with a toothy grin that sent a shiver down my spine. When she thrust the bottle back at me moments later, it was completely full.

  “Here. Now, give me a clean beaker. I want to see what happens when you run my blood through the beetle’s flames.”

  She sounded far too eager to watch a piece of herself slowly render down to almost nothing, but at that point, I was getting used to draconic oddity.

  Besides… I could admit that I was just as eager as she was to see what would happen.

  As Shaessath’s blood slowly boiled away, I tracked everything as closely as I could. This was not as easy as it had been with Alys’ blood. The Molten Expanse’s blood was ridiculously saturated with mana. Even the relatively small amount of blood contained so much of the substance that it threatened to blind my senses.

  As the process continued, that mana grew more potent. Eventually, my senses were rendered useless in the face of the roiling mass of growing power. I was left glancing between the blood and Shaessath, utterly dependent on her senses. I could only hope she would indulge my questions afterwards.

  After all, the blood was hers. I presumed that she could follow along perfectly with what was happening to it.

  That did make me pause and resolve to run my blood through the process soon. The additional insight into the beetle’s flames could only be beneficial for my work. Furthermore, I could admit that all of this effort to help Alys improve her bloodline was making me consider what I could do to grow my own strength.

  Yet as the volume of blood in the beaker reduced significantly, and a wide smile spread across Shaessath’s face, I shunted those thoughts aside.

  For now, I had a dragoness to interrogate!