The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage: Wandmaker Vol.2

WM [1] Just Another Demon

All the windows had been sealed, and the building had no natural light. Bjorn hadn't seen the sun in weeks and was getting antsy. They moved underground at night and stayed in one place during the day. He understood why—he was a three-headed hydra with antlers, not something they could easily disguise. Being the size of a pony meant he would draw attention, and since they were on the run, that would not be good.

He sighed as he looked around the office space of the large warehouse they were in this time. From what he remembered, it belonged to one of the Isi sympathizers, which is what people who aided them had come to be called. As it turned out, many people wanted to help the Isi. Most of the town guards and soldiers who couldn't use magic were trained directly by them, after all. They would have left the city, but Loki had constructs that watched all of the gatehouses.

Not to mention that they were still technically criminals, and while they had many sympathizers, they had many more people who would turn them in if they were found out. This was only compounded by the fact that the First Prince himself labeled the Isi as traitors in the first place. Not to mention, Bjorn blew up one of their priceless gatehouses. So yeah, they were stuck until whoever also contested the domain showed up.

"Are you sure you don't want to see the next memory?" Failsafe asked in his head.

The Reincarnation Failsafe magic construct had become more insistent on viewing the hydra's memories as soon as they became available. Its insistence came from the fact that he would lose access to the memories if he didn't internalize them and lost levels again. Bjorn realized Failsafe was right but was worried about what he would see. The last time he saw the memories of his past life before his reincarnation as a True Hydra, he doomed his people to death or slavery.

"Not now. I want to be alert if something happens," Bjorn responded mentally. "It would be a big distraction on my mind if we do it before we get out of here."

"You keep saying that, but it is just like sleeping. If something happens, you'll wake up."

Another reason Bjorn didn't want to view his memories was the warning he got from his hydra mother, the Queen of a Thousand Heads when she spoke to him and gave him back access to aether. She warned him that reincarnators sometimes get ridealongs from death with less-than-noble intentions. He wanted to trust Failsafe but, at the same time, needed to find out more about the supposed Reincarnation Failsafe first. Until he had confirmation, he didn't want to let the construct see more of his past life. Or maybe it was just a defense against allowing himself to see how he got his people killed.

"I said no for now. Just drop it," Bjorn said.

"Fine, fine, I am just bored. Why don't we see what the others are doing, at least?"

It was silent again as Failsafe gave up on his thousandth attempt to get Bjorn to view his memories. With nothing else to do, Bjorn opened his mental projection menus. He figured he might as well see if anything had changed since he had nothing better to do. Failsafe had been working on a third page, too, and maybe he was done with it.

"You finish that third page?" Bjorn asked.

"Oh, yeah, but it only shows your Magic Disciplines specializations, so it's useless," Failsafe said, unamused. "I don't think you need another page to tell you you are venomous."

"I'll take a look anyway," Bjorn responded.

Status Menu
Name: Bjorn Isin Scalebound
Species: Lernaean Hydra
Level: 32
Vitality: 140 / 195
Restoration: 210 / 270
Constitution: 120 / 135
Strength: 90 / 130
Dexterity: 80 / 100
Stamina: 90 / 115
Aether: 50 / 50
Aetheric Regeneration: 100 / 100 (+100 from bond)