07.03x: Refuge of Dreams

[Wyvern]

"I am Lady Alystrakos Obsidia Sybaris." Alys declares, and then pauses a moment to see if Nathrezell actually recognizes the name.

[Joshua]

"House Sybaris was destroyed. Razed to the ground and hunted for their connections. Devoured and destroyed to the last." Nathrezzel glares. "You clearly believe what you speak, but such cannot be."

[Wyvern]

Alys tilts her head, still smiling. "And that is already more information on what happened to the rest of my family than I have been able to get out of anyone else."

As she speaks, her form shifts, becoming leaner as she moves mass into wings and a tail. Her skin darkens to obsidian plates, and then lightens again as the flesh within transforms to white fire, shining through her scales.
"Back in Chaos, those events have faded to myth and legend - history written by the winners and then forgotten across countless generations. Personally, I missed all of that - and I will admit, recovering from what happened to me did require outside assistance and a great deal of time. Or possibly no time at all; either way, I cannot recommend the experience."

"Of course," she adds after reaching her full draconic form, "A sufficiently skilled shapeshifter could mimic even this - but they would have to have known me before my purported death, and there are none outside Clan Dragon who had that opportunity."

[Joshua]

"Unfortunately, I cannot show you my true form. This projection isn't my real body and there is currently a city on top of it." He will reluctantly absorb his sword. "Seems that we have a bit to talk about. Lyra... it may be time to tell you what you are descended from."

[ShadowOfPreservation]

"Please. I'd love to hear about that. It's something I've wondered about ever since I started dreaming about dragons." Lyra glances over at the figures on the chessboard, curious to see if Alys' figure has changed to match her form. "I'd started learning how to change into one before but now I can fully transform into a Shadow Dragon."

[Joshua]

Alys' representation does not change form. People have high enough warfare, this is to prevent anyone from finding out who the real dragons are.

"For what it's worth, my father was of House Crathis, warrior-scholars of the dragons. This place is one of the few refuges that escaped the purge. Clan Angel's extermination of our kind. Thankfully we need not worry about that now. It has been millennia since the purges, and if Clan Angel fell, then they are being hunted to extinction by the new ruling clan. Do you know who outed them?"

[Wyvern]

Alys shakes her head. "I know who ousted them, but there is no new ruling clan. Dworkin cast them down and then left, apparently to create an entirely new Greater Power: Pattern. That is what these two," she gestures to Lyra and Rasanam, "have attuned to. It is... roughly orthogonal to the power of Chaos."

[ShadowOfPreservation]

"So are you saying I'm a distant relative then? That this House Crathis is my heritage?"

[Joshua]

"It would be, but it no longer still exists. And it's been a hundred or so generations to you." Nate will answer. "Still, if you go back far enough, yes, part of that heritage goes through you. It would mean you cannot gain that power, regardless of your shapeshifting abilities."

[Wyvern]

Alys hmms quietly at the discussion of House Crathis, and settles down into a cross-legged pose, her wings folding in on themselves in a demonstration of casual shapeshifting.