The lack of comprehension was very apparent on the silver-haired woman’s face. While she kept blinking in consternation, Asterios helped Tina steady herself after the initial part of the ritual was completed. Since they hadn’t used his Hearts for it, only drawing on his third source, she had to bear most of the strain on her own. Still, she had done an impeccable job and he made sure to convey that with an appreciative smile as they stood leaning on each other with his arm wrapped gently around her waist.

While the Summoner duo ignored the other two, Althea snapped her fingers in front of Phatru’s face to bring her friend to focus. “Let me apologize for raising my hand at you, but even I won’t be able to remain idle when someone slanders the name of not just my beloved but also my disciple. Please, meet Asterios Hestizo, a True Dragon as you might have noticed, but one of a kind, dare I say. You stand before his entire family, so if I were in your place, I would watch my words carefully. Not all of them are as patient and magnanimous as their mate is. As our mate is.”

The other Dragon lady drew her shimmering eyes away from Althea and roamed her gaze over all the gathered. Matching the declaration, at least a few expressions of dissatisfaction, irritation, and even anger greeted her. It felt like every single female standing at the back of the summoning site was ready to defend the man with their lives on the line, not to mention his honor. 

From that collection of faces, one stood out, even if it wasn’t particularly intense. A short woman with brown hair and a single braid resting atop her shoulder stared daggers at Phatru with barely squinted eyes. Yet, the cold and calculative scrutiny pierced deep. It projected danger far over the physical domain.

“Now, as you might have noticed, Asterios restrained you only per my own wish, after I clearly voiced out my request,” Althea continued, earning herself Phatru’s attention once again. “He is ready to release you at any moment, as long as you give us your word that you won’t try anything silly. I don’t understate it by saying that we just want to talk. There’s something I would like to discuss with one of our kin, and it so happened that we chanced upon you. If you still consider me your friend after this long, I need you to put your trust in me. I guarantee that you will not regret it.”

They glared at each other in silence for a few long seconds before the light-skinned lady sighed. “Let me go.”

“Your word, please,” Althea insisted.

“Fine. I swear I won’t try running away again,” Phatru relented.

“On your Heart,” the emerald Dragon added.

That caused Phatru’s eyes to widen in shock, jumping between Asterios and Althea as much as they could with her frozen in place. A trace of fear returned to them as she racked her brain over the situation she’d found herself in.

“I swear upon my Hearts that I will not cause you any harm.” Ast’s sudden declaration made her gaze snap back to him with even more disbelief. “As long as your actions do not put any of my mates in danger, that is.”

Althea glanced at him over her shoulder as the vow settled in, then turned to her friend again. “There you have it. You had to feel his honest intentions. Not what I was aiming for, but I guess I’m not surprised. He is that kind of a man.”

Phatru peered at her with a dumbfounded expression. “Did he just say—”

“We will cover that later.” Althea waved her off. “Your word, please.”

With a final bit of hesitation flashing over her face, Phatru took a deep breath and the swirling gate behind her faded away as she closed her eyes. “I swear upon my Heart that I will not run for as long as you do not mean harm to me or my kin.”

Brushing her fingers over the cheek she’d previously slapped, Ast’s mentor smiled approvingly, sensing the oath settling down. “There. It wasn’t so hard, was it? You may now release her, Master.”

The woman’s eyes snapped open at her final word and she met a faint curl at the corner of the other lady’s mature lips as the restraints were finally lifted off her body.

Althea chuckled softly. “Forgive me. I couldn’t stop myself. You were always so fun to tease, Pha.”

Phatru scowled, rolling her shoulders to get rid of the remaining uneasiness, a faint trace of a blush surfacing on her pale cheeks. “It looks like you haven’t changed a bit, Thea. I was a fool to blindly jump after your essence. Can’t blame a woman for hoping you would be different, though.”

As the two pulled into a tender hug, embracing each other with a firm hold, the others stared at the display with raised brows, exchanging looks of confusion. Hadn’t changed a bit? Yet, it was their very first time ever witnessing their new friend acting so cheekily. It felt bizarre, even if Althea had told them herself that she hadn’t exactly been as refined in her early youth.

After finally drawing back, remaining close together, the duo turned to the others and Phatru drilled holes in Ast’s face with her intense gaze. “Are we going to address the elephant in the room now?”

Althea nodded with a proud smile. “As I said, meet Asterios Hestizo, the holder of two Dragon’s Hearts, a direct descendant of Red and Black respectively. Plus, of one additional source housing an Arch Dryad’s soul.”

The woman huffed. “Enough of your jokes, Thea. Please. Don’t make me regret it even more than I already am.”

“You think I’m not taking it seriously?” Althea directed a knowing grin at Asterios.

Immediately, he let his Hearts free and his draconic urges flooded his system, sending out a wave of mixed spiritual pressure. His fierce crimson-onyx eyes glowed with power as he met Phatru’s gaze, who shivered and stumbled in place, caught by her friend at the right moment.

“Sweet Mother of Hope and Dismay…” Phatru whimpered as he slowly locked his ancestry up.

“See now? If he really wanted anything from you, you wouldn’t have even had a chance to process it before becoming a mindless slave.” Althea borrowed some of Tia’s energy to revitalize the other lady. “May we finally move past this awkward entrance? This is Miria, Selene, Tina, Silvia, Grea, and Bryn, all Asterios’ beloved mates. And this is Kindra Hestizo, his surrogate mother, who you are to be thankful for being alive and free as she was the reason behind how he had turned out. She might be a human, but don’t let that mislead you.”

Kindra smiled at the silver-scaled Lesser Dragon with a seemingly adorable and warm expression that surprisingly emanated sharp frostiness at the edges.

“I… I think I need to sit down…” Phatru swallowed lightly, rubbing her forehead.

With a flick of her wrist, Althea created a table and enough chairs for them by employing the help of sturdy but comfortable tree roots. They all took a free spot and Asterios summoned a set of glasses alongside a bottle of wine that had been given to him by Yumi, pouring everyone a drink. The new arrival looked at hers suspiciously but finally brought the glass to her lips to moisten her throat after the experience she’d gone through just recently.

“Okay. First things first.” She let out an exhausted sigh, turning to her old friend. “You are alive. It’s kind of hard to believe. Traveling the world alone at your age was viewed as suicide by many. You should have ended up either dead or a slave to some stray reptile bastard, which is what I assumed when I saw him. I did not imagine myself seeing you ever again, especially since I heard you had left our realm, which was even more stupid.”

“Maybe it was, but I couldn’t stand the thought of wandering the same world as that man and barely any nest would welcome me. I was driven by emotions, I admit that. My path led me through multiple realms until I found myself in this one, realizing that it might not be as easy to leave, so this is where I stayed in hiding, befriending one of the local races. Until now, at least,” the emerald-haired mature beauty explained.

“What changed, then? If you were content about your life with one of these bas—I mean a respectable True Dragon, why are you trying to reach out to old acquaintances?” Phatru hastily altered her tone when Althea’s brow furrowed.

“My whole story is too long for one sitting, but the crucial aspect is that this is an extremely recent arrangement,” Althea continued. “In short, chance brought him to my doorstep and he saved my life in return for becoming my disciple. Though, he was going to do that regardless of my answer. It was only about a month ago that the two of us became mated after I submitted myself to him willingly. Now, as a good female of his entourage, I’m simply doing what I can to support him and ensure that our family thrives for centuries to come.”

“I think decades is more accurate,” Tina chimed in quietly.

The Dragon lady smiled at her delicately. “I know what I said, dear sister. You didn’t think that after taking so much of our beloved’s essence deep into your core it wouldn’t affect your life expectancy too, did you?”

The timid Summoner girl flushed deeply at the open mention of those activities as pretty much everyone was aware of what Althea meant.

“He must really like her,” Phatru commented nonchalantly and all the other of Ast’s girls turned to look at her with a crease in their foreheads, surprising her once more by the slight animosity.

Althea let out an amused chuckle. “No, he doesn’t really like her. He loves her and cares for her. For all of us. We receive his full essence almost daily. We are all his True Mates. Or did you miss the part where I mentioned it?”

The woman blinked stupidly while observing Asterios with a blank, stunned face. He simply smiled wryly her way. It was a bit weird being talked about by them without including him, but he was okay with leaving the initial part of the encounter to Althea, who had the best chance at ensuring Phatru’s relative comfort. However, it seemed that their guest would be getting consternated for quite a bit longer by his unusual nature.

“I didn’t think… It would be True Mates… Servants, maybe, but…” She wavered.

“I’m afraid you will have to throw away all the preconceptions you have gathered over your long life, Pha. If you want to get through this conversation without constantly being dumbfounded, I advise you look at him like you would upon any other lesser race,” Althea suggested.

“What? And he is… not furious about that?” Phatru whispered into her friend’s ear while keeping her eyes on Asterios.

“I consider myself a human at heart,” he said, making her flinch in surprise. “Even though my Hearts seem to point out otherwise.”

That caused her to become even more shocked as she swiveled her head between him and Althea.

“I hope you don’t mind me joining this conversation, but I believe we started on the wrong foot,” Asterios continued, trying to sound confident but kind. “I’m Asterios. You may call me Ast. Any friend of Althea is a friend of mine, so please, speak comfortably around us. And since my mentor is the only Lesser Dragon I’ve ever interacted with, forgive me if I make any social blunders toward your people as we talk. Feel free to advise me on my mistakes so that I can know better for the future.”

They thought Phatru couldn’t get any more bewildered but Ast’s long introduction seemed to shut off her brain for a good while, overheating it with a bucketload of contradicting information. The girls snickered at her, enjoying seeing the person who had insulted their lover get taken aback, even if Asterios was reminding them to be understanding of her circumstances.

“If we are planning to get anywhere with this, I agree that we should assume a more casual setting,” Silvia added. “However, I would advise against slandering the ruler of a nation on his own land further on. As one of that rulers’s queens, I’m not going to take to my husband’s offense lightly.”

“Damn right! Master is the nicest person in existence! Perhaps too nice sometimes!” Miria stated while crossing her arms and raising her chin.

“But he still fucks like a beast.” Grea grinned impishly, then cleared her throat as the other ladies glared at her. “If that’s how you want him to take you, of course.”

Semi-satisfied with her correction, they got off her case without any further intimidation. One after another, the ladies continued to rain different praises on Asterios while he shook his head and waited for them to finish presenting him in the best light. They went through various of his achievements, their experiences with him, first meetings, feelings of belonging, how far he would go for all of them, and Selene even brought up the notion that he would one day unite the entire realm as the Dragon Emperor.

“Alright, let’s talk about that,” Asterios interrupted them at about that moment. “Not the Emperor thing exactly, but about our little nation. It’s related to why we have reached out to you through Althea. Would you mind listening to our request?”

Phatru gave him a small nod. “If I’m not mistaken, you summoned me here, so if we are to follow the proper procedure, I should at least listen to what you expect of me as a familiar. So, I’m listening.”

“Well, to be precise, it was Tina who summoned you while I assisted her with Althea,” he replied. “She is the one you would be forming a contract with if you find our terms agreeable. I imagine that would be less uncomfortable than binding yourself to a True Dragon you know almost nothing of.”

“Which would actually be a blessing in disguise, but regardless.” Althea took her friend’s hand gently. “I offered Asterios the way to reach our kin because he came up with an idea on how to provide some of us a peaceful place to live in while serving as partners to the members of his elite unit of protectors. This realm is no longer harassed by True Dragons. In fact, I might be the only Dragon left behind as everyone else escaped a long time ago when the residents of this world came up with a way to fight back. Save for him, naturally, but that’s another complex story.”

“Okay…” Phatru looked at her pensively. “So what is that brilliant idea of his?”

“We would like you to form a contract with Tina and help us get in touch with other Lesser Dragons. Thanks to his father’s research and his own talents, Asterios can travel through the summoning gates alongside his True entourage,” Althea began, shocking her friend greatly already. “Our goal is to speak to the younglings in a nest or a few and offer them mentorship in this safe world in exchange for their service. He suggested that we extend this chance to more than one person and I believe it won’t be an issue to mentor a group of well-behaved individuals. Besides living here and learning, their main responsibilities would amount mostly to serving as the steeds of the mentioned units and being dispatched on various missions together. What do you think?”

The gray-scaled Dragon lady assumed a thoughtful expression as she went over everything she’d heard once more in her mind. Althea and the others gave her all the time she needed to process their plan and request. Everyone silently hoped that the woman wouldn’t reject it, but they weren’t going to insist too firmly. Asterios wouldn’t want that.

“That does sound quite appealing,” Phatru admitted while stroking her chin with the other hand. “Assuming that you wouldn’t mind releasing our kin from their contracts and service after they finish their mentorship, it could work rather well, allowing us to rotate the chosen periodically. That would create a stable opportunity for our young. People will be hesitant and suspicious at first, but after the first one or two batches of candidates safely going through this and sharing their experiences with the others, I believe we could establish a new form of mentorship. That would be great.”

Althea squeezed her friend’s hand with a quiet chuckle. “I see you still dislike that old system just like we used to.”

The woman snorted to the side. “You know perfectly well how precarious it is. And let me tell you, nothing has changed since your incident. I might not have heard about anything similar happening, but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t. Unfortunately, the alternatives aren’t that good and every nest continues to push the traditional approach no matter what. Sometimes I think they simply don’t want to bother themselves with the responsibility of educating our people living under their protection.”

“Even with all its flaws, you have to admit that it has a certain charm to it and the benefits of personal mentorships can’t be easily dismissed. We shouldn’t judge the tree through a few bad apples,” Althea responded. “But, like in the past, I have to agree that the lack of alternatives is a problem. And for those who rationalize it with the belief that we are nomadic due to the threat of our enemies finding us, always staying ready to relocate and journey the world, I have one thing to say.”

“It doesn’t apply here,” Phatru finished for her with a sparkle in her silvery irises. “You are right. It might even become a reason convincing enough to sway the youth into accepting the offer. Being able to leave the nest without worrying about running into our nemesis at every possible step is a huge deal. Just that is a valuable boon. Only fools would decide to ignore it.”

“Does that mean that you are going to accept Master’s offer to form a contract with Tina?” Bryn asked honestly.

The Dragon lady was brought back from her musings and met Ast’s eyes with a resolute gaze.

“No.”

Her answer surprised them greatly, causing Asterios and the girls to exchange confused glances, wondering why their guest would come to such a decision. Even Althea raised her brows at her friend, clearly expecting a different outcome from their lively discussion. She could see how moved and passionate about the project her friend had been becoming.

Breaking her eye contact with Asterios, Phatru squeezed Althea’s palm back and slowly stood up. Everyone watched curiously as she quickly fixed her posture… and bowed respectfully towards the sole man of the group.

“Please, Lord Asterios, would you kindly consider choosing my daughter in my stead?”