Two souls as one.

The dragon slowly came back to the split in my soul and softly stared at the others, silently waiting.

Since no one else was going to start I figured I might as well… "Ok… We need to take out the demon… Let's start with that… When I'm in dragon mode I'm faster, but only a little, and one hit and I'm dead… Rafi, what about you and Lu, how strong are you two together?"

They slowly looked at each other and then back at me. 

"Really strong." 

"super strong."

'They really are a perfect fit…' I sighed. "That doesn't help…"

Rafi folded her arms and tilted her head. "Well… You're talking about the big black demon with crazy horns, right? Wears a man-skirt and has big hooves for feet."

'Not… How I would have described him…' "Yeah… Sounds right…"

"Ok… Well, we could probably go a few rounds, we could take a hit if we block it… And we'd be faster, but only because the sword I use is weightless."

'Works for me…' "Ok… Now… We need a plan for reverting my form. Being half-dragon is nice and all… But… Has its disadvantages… And the longer I stay in it the worse it seems to get… I was hoping could you explain why Mr dragon?"

He sighed, lying down. "When our souls merge together, they don't fall into a single wavelength… They overlap. This overlap causes problems like what you experienced, and because we are not of the same temperament, philosophy, species, or even the same sex, the differences vary even more… It's like two roars echoing across a canyon. You will only be able to hear both if you are in the middle, otherwise, no matter how strong the other roar, if you are right next to the opposite dragon, you will only hear him."

"Ok… But in this scenario… What determines where I am in the canyon?"

"That… I don't know… The day-night cycle maybe? It's also possible that you simply drift down the canyon like a raft in a river, ever closer towards me after we merge."

"Then… What happens when I get to you?"

He let out a soft, almost regretful groan.

'Does that mean he doesn't know? That I die? I don't get it…' "Wait, before, sometimes things would make my eyes turn orange, or it would be like I could feel what you were feeling. What caused that?"

"A resonance… For example, if you were angry, and I was also angry you would feel my anger because it would be stronger than any emotion a human could feel. Hm… You are right, it is likely that it would sway where you are in this metaphorical canyon."

I sighed. "It's a shame we are so incompatible… It felt like we were canceling each other out more than we were doing anything else…"

A puff of smoke blew down from his nose. "You should be grateful. Had you merged souls with a female dragon, you would most certainly have assaulted someone and lost what you refer to as innocence."

"Egh! That's… That's not really true, is it? I have more self-control than that don't I?"

"Innocence?" Lu tilted her head.

'Speaking of…' I sighed again deciding not to explain….

"A dragon's soul was never meant to be contained within a human's body…" Rafi muttered, reaching out her hand as if trying to overcome the wall between them. "I can separate you two again by force through Lu, at the end of it all. But you two are mistaken about something. It's not that Siya is becoming more like the dragon, but rather the longer you two stay together, the more the dragon becomes like Siya, it then resists this with all it's might to maintain a sense of self, and that resistance is likely what caused you to have these side effects."

I slowly looked at the dragon who seemed unphased. "Ok… So if we stayed together for a really long time what would happen?"

Without so much as turning he spoke back. "In all likelihood, you would keep the abilities I have given you, and become freely able to change forms, but maintain yourself, and only yourself, gaining full control of the powers I currently possess."

"But then… What happens to you…"

He sighed, looking over to Rafi. "That… Is the question… Isn't it Lady Saint of Souls…"

'Lady! She gets called a lady! I don't think he's ever even called me… Well… Anything? Then again… I just call him Mr dragon… No wonder he has no sense of self…' He glanced back at me for a moment… But it almost seemed like he was an old dog, staring at an enraged chipmunk that wasn't worth its time…

Rafi slowly looked at him, and then back at me as if choosing her words carefully for once. "To say you would die wouldn't be right… You were never alive in the first place… You are completely separate from the entity you came from too though… So to say you are already dead is also inaccurate… It's almost like… You're a child of hers that has yet to be born, and never will… It's extremely rare… But in this case, what will most likely happen is that you will merge with her entirely to the point of non-existence, at which point your soul will transmigrate to where it belongs without subtracting anything from what she has. Essentially, your conscious soul will leave the body, while the physical soul will remain and transfer to her control, effectively causing you to experience death."

Everyone went quiet for a long time, Lu clearly completely lost. Even the dragon, I wasn't sure how much of that he understood… Or honestly… If any of it mattered… The truth was that knowing the intricate details of the problem in this case… Didn't actually let us do anything to fix it… And so nothing changed.

He slowly stood up with a heavy breath as he rolled his shoulders and shook his scaly hide. "I thought as much… Well. With all that settled then… Shall we join together and slay this vile abomination from the abyss? I have a score to settle for my brother's sake." He glanced back at Rafi. "Or I suppose… My predecessors brother…" His long neck slowly sank down and winded over until his face was right in front of mine. "Either way… In this quest, our souls are as one."

He stepped closer and lowered his head to me, gazing into my eyes with a bright orange glow that was so familiar, because it was my own. My heart ached… But I felt nothing from him… "Our souls Are…" 'But if our souls resonate… Didn't we just say that would kill you?'

His body vanished. The ground began to shake and the world began to spin as Rafi and Lu slowly twisted and distorted until I found myself waking up in my body again. 'My head… I'll never get used to that… The world is still spinning…"

"Siya… Are you awake?"

I heard Rafi's voice echo behind Lu's, much higher pitched and smoother.

'I guess she changed too then? So it's beginning…' My body slowly swelled and grew, once again more than filling out the clothes that otherwise didn't even stay on. "I am…" I muttered. "We should get ready… And then head out…"

She suddenly hugged me, stopping me from moving.

"Ah… What are you doing?"

"I wanted to see what it felt like now."

"Am I talking to Rafi? Or Lu…"

She let go and quickly stood up, stretching her shoulders. "Both. Generally speaking, we are on the same page. But whenever Rafi wants something I just let her do it."

Her voice suddenly split. "It's not so much that she is controlling me."

"More like, we are both piloting the same body, but never giving conflicting comands."

'I'm starting to see why it takes a special person to be a vessel…' "Ok… Let me head back to my room, and grab my swords. Then we can both take Fritz, it's too dangerous for any other horse."

She placed her hands on her hips and nodded as her body finished transforming as well, looking entirely different than before. The skin on her right arm turned to a black stone-like texture that was almost no different than Zu's skin, rather than jagged spike scales coming out like fractured earth. Her calves and forearms grew again, but the black marks that swirled around her were much more elegant and refined, rather than fractured. Most notably though her right eye was no longer pitch black. Instead, the skin and veins around it glowed with a mix of black and dark blue spirals, and shimmering white light shined from her suddenly perfect complexion. Her eye itself glowed with the same glistening moonlight, and there was no black mist fogging around her. In fact, after throwing on a cloak, she looked almost the same, explaining how no one caused a fuss about seeing a demon when she came back last night.

"I'll meet you there." They said in unison.

'It's going to be hard to get used to this… Hopeful I won't have to… I said it was ok because nothing bad happened… My own life has been in danger so many times it feels wrong to get mad about someone else being in danger… But what if something bad did… No… I'll just have to make sure it doesn't…'