[Dragon peaks]
With Serania at his side, Darganth sat atop a cliff overlooking one of the smaller cities among the dragon peaks. With their fingers intertwined and her sitting on his right thigh, they were calmly leaning against a tree that stood near the edge and watched as over a hundred figures were going through a series of drills down below.
Among them, some stood in pairs and sparred with one another, others stood in small yet spaced out groups and repeatedly cycled through numerous motions and fighting stances in unison, while again others launched various elemental and energy attacks at targets and training dummies. In between this, Allaire walked with a completely neutral face, constantly moving across the large courtyard in random patterns and only stopping occasionally to give advice to some of the men and women training around her.
"It's quite a sight. A few days ago, I hadn't even thought of Allaire as the teaching type, and now she's forming her own fighting force." Serania suddenly said, breaking the silence that had by then persisted for a few minutes.
"Well, the second part was to be expected. She's always taken the safety of those who trust in her for protection extremely seriously, so overseeing internal security was a task I've known for quite some time she'd eventually want to take care of herself. And that's not something one can do alone, so I had guessed that she'd take in some subordinates. But the fact that she wanted to train them herself surprised me too." Darganth responded.
Humming in response, Serania leaned her head in closer to Darganth as he gently traced his fingers down her neck.
"But what's with you, still nothing interesting enough to make into a project of your own?" He asked her.
"Not really. What little time I spent leading my people made me realize that it isn't something I'm made for. So unless I'm needed for something specific at the moment, I'm content helping you and the others in day to day matters. I just don't have the grand visions or ambitions of the other girls to drive me toward a specific goal. A few years ago, I might've had a comfortable life as a goal, but that has been fulfilled for quite some time now." Serania answered him, her thoughts wandering toward what Jennia and the others were doing at the time.
With the upheaval Darganth's proclamation had been causing in the past month since he made it, this was almost certainly something administrative for Neandra and Venrie. While most of their people went along with their decision, changing systems and structures that emerged from tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years of warfare proved to be no task Darganth envied them for.
Jennia and Yldra have meanwhile spent these weeks overseeing the efforts that were made in his name on the human continent. While he didn't care much particularly about also integrating this continent into rule, the liberty with which he used his real name due to Irsyr's efforts to isolate Ikrus meant that he wanted to at least have some connection with them in case outside forces manage to make contact. Optimally, this would be accompanied by some goodwill from its rulers, but ultimately, he mainly cared about preventing the possibility that his identity was uncovered, no matter how remote the possibility.
His wife and lover, though, had seemingly deemed this goal as too easy and intervened among the group he tasked with this to set their ambitions quite far up along the loose framework of further optional goals he had given them. To help with this, they made liberal use of the teleportation network Irsyr had started to build shortly after the gathering, with the two spending hours of every second or third day on the continent to the east.
Letting the pause hang for a few seconds, Darganth interrupted Serania's thoughts a moment later, "As long as you're happy."
"That I am." She said before turning her head to the side and giving Darganth a loving kiss.
Leaning back into his embrace afterward, she hummed happily for a few seconds.
"Speaking of hobbies, didn't your sister say she'd be back today?" She suddenly asked a few seconds later.
"That was the plan. But you know how she is, in all likelihood, she found something interesting to explore and will be late by a day or two." Darganth said with a glance at the already darkening evening sky.
Nodding in response to his words, Serania's thoughts briefly wandered to Alicia's energetic curiosity. Whenever something new presented itself to her, the dragoness jumped headfirst into the adventure.
"You're reacting a lot less worried about that than the last time." Serania noted when Darganth continued relaxing against the tree after those words.
"It's not like I can realistically do much more than trust her as well as Sonita and Vika. Well, I could have a dragon watch over her from whom she wouldn't be able to slip away like she did with the last one. But I can understand that she wasn't exactly fond of it, so I'll have to trust that she activates the teleportation amulet in time." Darganth said, though his tone betrayed that he wasn't entirely happy with this.
"Oh, so she did find out like we told you she would."
Grinning smugly at being proven correct, Serania briefly thought about when this happened and whether she should ask what exactly happened, but soon decided to let it be.
"But still, she is an adult who knows what she can do, even if the trouble her antics cause doesn't always make it seem that way."
"Well, she grew up in a world without magic. And while some fundamentals are still the same, in terms of magic knowledge she might as well be a new hatching exploring the things it knows from its innate knowledge. Maybe even worse considering the fascination for magic the stories of our previous world evoked." Darganth said.
"I can see why that makes you worry, she's unpredictable." Serania said.
Simultaneously, she realized that she never spent enough time with her sister-in-law to be able to notice this. As such, when she felt Darganth nodding slowly, she started making plans to join either Darganth or Jennia in one of their activities with Alicia once the latter returned.
"Very unpredictable. Though the trouble this causes is the least of my worries, it's that I was once upon a time described similarly. That makes me worry that this is a sneak peek at how it will be when I have children in the future." Darganth said with an exhausted chuckle.
Abruptly snapping toward him, Serania looked at him with a raised eyebrow in response to his words. Too surprised to speak, her expression shifted from surprise to pouting for a few moments until he interrupted her with a kiss on the lips.
"One day. And if I make such plans with any one of you, we'll tell the rest, don't worry." He said.
"Ah."
Leaning back against him, Serania reacted with both relief and a tinge of disappointment. Seeing this, Darganth pulled her even deeper into his embrace, shifting his legs beneath her to let her sit on his lap before explaining.
"Now's not the time. Not only would my children be at risk as long as the three primordials are still around, but I also want them to have the childhood I can give them. Allaire also agreed with that when she mentioned the desire to one day have children, so I'll have to ask you to be patient." Darganth said.
"I understand. It's just that I never considered that you'd want children, considering you've never had any despite having lived so long and never had any, so hearing it after getting my hopes up was disappointing."
"Well, before my rebirth, all my wives were born immortal and that tends to greatly reduce the desire to have children." Darganth said.
Knowing of this shared cultural attribute among most immortal species, Serania wasn't at all surprised by his explanation. And with it, a thought bloomed in her mind, prompting her to whisper to him with a grin a few seconds later.
"I'd bet that your death changed some of that, so I suspect this family will grow faster than you expect right now."
"Possibly." Darganth said and started tracing his fingers through Serania's hair.
After he spoke, silence reigned around the two. Lost in her thoughts and basking in the feeling of his fingers massaging across her scalp, Serania closed her eyes as her imagination wandered to the future. Meanwhile, Darganth simply watched her blissful expression with a smile of his own, only occasionally glancing over the cliff's edge to where Allaire was saying some final words before her subordinates dispersed for the day.
A few minutes later, Allaire then flew up from the courtyard while the last of the trainees left, slowly rising higher through the wings of light she manifested on her back until she landed on the edge of the cliff near Darganth. Noticing him and Serania sitting there peacefully, she took care to not cause a disturbance as she silently walked closer and sat down next to them.
"Hey my love." She said along with it, causing Serania to slowly open her eyes and Darganth to turn toward her and reciprocate her kiss.
"How was it?" Darganth asked once their lips separated again.
"Good. While they're still not strong enough to be ready, it's now only a matter of time. And it's now been a week since the last time I began doubting anyone's trustworthiness, so I like to think that there aren't any problematic individuals among them left." Allarie said.
Hearing this, Darganth nodded with pride in her. The entire purpose behind Allaire's decision to train her subordinates herself was to ensure that they could be trusted. And while nearly all dragons already fulfilled these criteria, she hoped to have her subordinates take over some of the sensitive tasks that were currently their tasks, thus allowing more of their numbers to spread beyond this universe.
"And, how was your day?" Allaire then asked a moment later.
"Relaxing. Before coming here I've only had to deal with one minor request, so Serania and I visited a concert in the capital. Otherwise we've only been lazing around and watching you, as you can see." Darganth said.
"On that topic, you look stunning in uniform," he added after a short pause, allowing his gaze to roam up and down Allaire's military-clad form, clearly appreciating the sight.
In response, Allaire leaned in with a smile, "I'm glad to please. But back to why I asked, are you up for a round of hunting? I still have some energy left that I need to work out of my system."
Briefly glancing down at Serania to gauge her willingness to get up from their comfy position, Darganth nodded when he turned back to Allaire.
"Any preferences where?" He asked.
"Not really."
Following Allaire's answer, Darganth then paused briefly to make a decision before making the two of them an Serania vanish in a surge of spatial energy as he teleported them toward a remote area near the bottom of the dragon peaks.