"I got it!" Silverwing said about twenty minutes later. "I think I understand now." Lith said after twenty more minutes. "What?" Solus had a hard time not peeking in his mind but she endured and focused even harder. "I did it!" Five minutes later, she received thumbs-up from the others while Xubari and Anata looked at each other in disbelief. "Are Hydras that dumb or are humans that good?" She asked. "I don’t know. Focus. We have less than fifteen minutes left to understand what they are talking about." He replied. At the two-hour mark, Xorn’s scales grew slightly thicker, and small barbs appeared along his spines. "That’s enough." Menadion said. "Reverse the process. I’ve found all the evidence I need to confirm and further develop my theory." "That’s fantastic news." Anata turned to Xubari who shrugged helplessly. Neither of them had noticed anything worth mentioning. "I can’t believe you’ve found a solution to our problem in less than a day." He said. "And you are right because I didn’t." Menadion replied. "I just found the proper starting point for your research." "What do you mean, proper starting point?" Anata asked in confusion. "That you did everything wr-" A powerful nudge to the ribs from Baba Yaga stopped Menadion. "Everything necessary to lay the groundwork for the next step of your research. Let me show you." Menadion conjured a hologram to divert everyone’s attention while she gave Baba Yaga a nod as a thank you. "This is a depiction of Xorn’s life force down to the smallest detail." The projection showed a blazing violet sun with frequent solar flares, each of a different elemental color. "This, instead, is his physical appearance." A second hologram appeared right beside the first, showing the seven-headed male Hydra. "Now, pay attention to what happened to him in the last two hours." A third hologram marked the passage of time. Menadion fast-forwarded close to the one-hour mark, slowing down just a few minutes before that. At first, no one noticed anything. Then, what looked like a sunspot appeared on the surface of the star. At the one-hour mark, a second sunspot appeared while the first swelled, growing in size. The physical hologram of the Hydra, instead, showed no change. After that, Menadion fast-forwarded again. Around the two-hour mark, the two original sunspots had turned into small suns and more sunspots had appeared all over the star. At the same time, Xorn had exhibited the first changes in his body. "No offense, Ruler Menadion, but that’s nothing new." Xubari failed to hide his disappointment and so did most of the Hydra clan’s members. "Those are two unknown mana organs we found in Ufyl’s life force." He pointed at the small suns. "The blackened areas are also mana organs that require more time to develop. The problem is that we don’t know what is what or how to reproduce the phenomenon without the Harmonizer." "Are you-" Menadion bit her tongue, feeling her rage and frustration from the seven hundred years spent as a wandering soul burning her mind like acid. "Yaga, do you want to do the honors? You are a better teacher." "Nonsense, Ripha." The Red Mother tutted. "Deep inside all that grumpiness, there’s still the old you. We just need to dig her out. Imagine you are explaining this to Solus." Find your next read on empire She made a gesture with her hand at the level of her hips to indicate a five year old Solus. The Hydras had no idea of its meaning and their pride was spared from another bruise. "Fine." Menadion took a deep breath. "I’m sorry for being short-tempered. I’m working on that. I swear." She gave her audience a deep bow. "Okay. Please, pay attention." She highlighted the small suns and the sunspots. "You see that, right?" The Hydras nodded for her to continue. "Let’s go back to the start." The timer went back to the zero mark, yet the highlighted areas were still visible. "What do you see?" To avoid another outburst, Menadion zoomed in on the points where sunspots would appear. "Nothing." Xubari said, forcing Menadion to bite her inner cheek not to roll her eyes. "Wait. The first two areas show some kind of deformity while the rest is clear." Menadion closed her eyes and silently thanked the gods. "All life forces present imperfections like that but if you have pointed them out, they must have a significance." His seven heads talked between them for a while before he asked: "Are they the reason Hydras failed to become Dragons?" Menadion cursed the gods and replied: "Yes and no. Yes, those ’imperfections’ stunted your growth. No, they are not the reason you failed but the one that may bring you to success." "I’m sorry, I don’t follow." Anata said. "Look, it’s simple." Menadion replayed the whole process. ’It’s fine. Let them get to it. Like with Epphy when she potty trained.’ She inwardly sighed. "Is it still not clear? Okay. Please, cover the ears of your children and someone tell me the secret of the violet core. Everyone here has it, correct?" "You mean the breathing technique?" Ufyl asked as the Hydras sent their Hatchlings away. "No, the basic principle behind it." "You have to condense the mana vortexes into auxiliary cores." He said. "Good, but say it in even simpler terms." Menadion gestured him to continue. "You have to develop dormant mana organs in order to- Good gods!" Ufyl blurted out in enlightenment. "I see!" Xubari stared at the imperfections like the greatest treasure of his life and soon Anata followed his reasoning to the same conclusion. Less than five minutes later, everyone had solved the mystery of Menadion’s words. "Exactly." She sighed in relief. "These two are not imperfections. They are atrophied mana organs that failed to develop, turning whatever your Dragon bloodline was supposed to be into Hydras. No offence." "None taken." Fyrwal said. "Why are those areas clear though?" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶 She pointed at the position of the late-developing mana organs. "Because Xorn’s and Ufyl’s bloodlines are different." Menadion replied. "Those mana organs are unnatural for Xorn and if he were to complete the transformation into a Dragon, they would cause rejection." "You’re right!" Xubari pondered. "But the problem still remains. As I said, all life forces present small imperfections. If we stimulate them all, there is no telling what might happen. "Not all of them are bound to be mana organs and might lead to lethal conditions. How do we find the position of the necessary mana organs for each bloodline?" "With a road map. Please, look at this." She showed minuscule alterations in Xorn’s appearance that started soon after the first mana organs formed. "As you can see, just like with the violet core, the mana organs forms first and the body follows. "In this process, however, Xorn’s body couldn’t develop naturally. The Harmonizer shaped Xorn’s body into Ufyl’s, but what if we remove that?" Menadion asked. "Once fully formed, the mana organs would cause a natural body development that would also affect the life force." Anata pondered. "It’s reasonable to assume that the changes in the life force should prime the development of the remaining atrophied mana organs or at least a few of them."