Haku, king of all dragons

Haku went to a small clearing between two dunes. The sun had almost set by now and the sand was starting to get cold. Soon the patrols that the beastmen leaders wanted to send to look for Carrion's body would leave, but at the moment this wasn't a problem for Haku: what Zamor had asked him was to go and recover those who were lost, not to accompany them during the search. Therefore, now he could devote himself to more important things. In the middle of that small clearing was Serengal, still in her human avatar, sitting on the ground playing with her hair, and next to her was Corgorin, who was instead in her real body and towered over her sister like a giant. Behind them was Inpu, the spirit they had captured, who was sitting on the ground in a fetal position, holding his head between his legs and his legs in his arms, not making a single movement.

His sisters welcomed him warmly as usual. "Hey brother!" Corgorin greeted him. "Took you long! How was the meeting between you bosses?"

Haku smiled back. "It went well. Zamor maintained his strong position in the military, I convinced him that I had nothing to do with Carrion's reappearance, and we came to an understanding about not asking questions we knew we would have received an answer. In short, a meeting like any other" he said curtly, then looked at Inpu. "So this is the spirit? Is it normal that he is in that position?"

Serengal nodded. "Yes. I ordered him to do the same thing Carrion made him do, which was sit idle waiting for orders, and this is what he did. It's really strange, it almost looks like he is into a state of hibernation or cryptobiosis or anything else. He continues to absorb my mana, but he does it much more slowly than before, as if he consumes almost no energy"

Haku nodded. Spirits were indeed interesting existences. However, before he could start studying it the way he wanted, there was a fundamental problem he had to solve. "How long do you think you can keep him here?"

Spirits could only remain in the mortal world as long as their summoner continued to pass them energy in the form of mana in the case of minor spirits and divine power in the case of major spirits. If that mana ran out, or if the link between them was somehow severed, the spirit would immediately return to its realm. Haku clearly couldn't allow it: Inpu was the key to access a huge amount of information, and he absolutely couldn't lose him.

"Even when he's...well, 'active', his energy drain isn't as abrupt as that of major spirits. With my level adamantium mana core I could probably hold him for a day or two. In this vegetative state he could stay here for weeks, maybe even a month" Serengal answered. "But I've found a way around that. If I install a second heart inside this avatar, then we could keep this spirit with us forever. That way, I'd feed it my right heart for a few days, then I would replace it with the left one while I would take out the other heart and put in a brand new one. This way the mana flow that keeps him anchored to this world would never run out. We could easily recharge the mana cores inside the hearts which I would use thanks to the underground caverns, which from what we know should be rich in mana in their depths"

The spirit was only linked to the summoner's mana, not the mana core itself, so using that technique would actually work. However, there were problems. "It can only work if your avatar is also constantly active. Once you leave it, it will be no different than a dying body. Therefore, using this method, you will be forced to stay in there forever"

Serengal bit her tongue and her gleeful expression dissolved. She hadn't calculated that possibility. She didn't like the idea of ​​staying in a body that wasn't hers for too long; she had no intention of being like Maldor, Kotaru, Sisna or Malchia. "Well... on the worst-case scenario, we can still use it as a short-term solution..."

"Don't talk about it! I'm not going to see you walking around with that rotten body any longer than necessary!" Corgorin exclaimed. "There's a better solution, isn't there, brother?"

"We'll see right away" Haku answered looking at Inpu. "Sister, wake him up and order him to answer all my questions with absolute sincerity"

Serengal nodded, and she loudly said: "Inpu, arise and answer my commands!". The instant she finished the sentence, the spirit came to life and rose on his legs, and finally opened his eyes. He completely ignored Corgorin and Haku and stared at his mistress, clearly awaiting orders. "Inpu, this is my brother Haku. I order you to answer all the questions he asks you. You must be completely honest and give all the details without leaving anything out. Am I clear?"

"Yes ma'am" Inpu replied respectfully, then he stared at Haku. "I'm at your disposal. What do you wish to know, young mortal?"

Corgorin let out an annoyed snort and rolled her eyes. The spirits acted in a very strange way: it was almost as if they didn't have a real will. When they were enemies, Inpu had treated her and her sisters with a certain haughtiness, and a measure of pride and arrogance, but now that Serengal had become his mistress he had changed into a respectful and polite being. The only thing that hadn't changed about him was his peculiarity of talking too much and as if he were a playwright on an acid trip. But as far as his attitude was concerned, he had completely changed. Corgorin wondered how much the spirits could actually choose for themselves and how much they depended on their summoners. And a spirit that hadn't been summoned instead? What would he be like?

Haku was also wondering a lot, but at the moment it was imperative to solve the main problem. "Tell me how I transfer control over you from my sister to me. I'm a dragon, so I have large amounts of mana in my body that can keep you grounded in this world, but I can't use it to perform summoning magic. How can I do it then?"

Inpu shook his head. "Unfortunately, there is no answer to your question. The only way to harness a spirit to its summoner is through summoning magic or through the divine power of the servants of the gods. A being who is unable to use magic cannot can perform no summoning magic, therefore it can neither summon a spirit, nor transfer the control of a spirit between two individuals. Therefore you, dragon, until you acquire a domain you cannot do any of these actions"

Haku let out a displeased growl. "Then give me an alternative. Tell me how I can keep you anchored to this world for a long time without having to rely on my sister or any other living being"

Inpu narrowed his eyes and his body stiffened. This rekindled optimism in Haku: it was clear that the spirit knew some method and would have liked not to reveal it to him. However, Serengal had ordered him to truthfully answer all of Haku's questions, and he couldn't oppose her command. "There is a way. You have to transfer my essence to a mana-rich item"

The dragon was confused. "Transferring your essence? How…?"

"It's a similar process to the one your sister used to transfer control over me from Carrion to herself" Inpu explained. "All you have to do is find an item, charge it with mana, and then perform a similar magic to disconnect me from my lady and connect to the item instead. This way, the mana contained in the item will become my energy source and I I will be bound to this world until I have consumed it all. Therefore, you only need to charge the item with a lot of mana from time to time to keep me bound to it. It is a simple spell and I can teach it to my lady, who will have the task of severing the link between us and creating one between me and the object, since, of course, the object cannot do this by itself. However, you cannot use this method with living beings, because once I will be connected my soul must be fused into the object, and it will become my home until the mana runs out and I am cast out of the mortal world, and since another soul would already be present in a living body, try to merging with it could cause a lot of... problems"

Haku reflected on the spirit's words. "Are you saying that, if for example we took a lamp, you would enter it and stay there, only to come out once called, and you would feed yourself exclusively with the mana that the lamp would provide you with?"

"Exactly" Inpu replied.

"But then why should you still obey our orders?" Haku opined smelling deceit. "If you are no longer bound to my sister, you will no longer be obligated to us"

Inpu let out a strangled sound. Clearly he had hoped that Haku would not ask him that question. "Legitimate objection, but you have no reason to fear. True, when I am in the subject I will no longer be bound to either my present mistress or any of you, but my purpose in the mortal world would still remain that of a humble servant. And since an object clearly couldn't command me, I would become the property of whoever had ownership of that object and obey his orders. If we take the example of the lamp you made, I would no longer obey you, but whoever owns the lamp; therefore, if you own the lamp, I will still obey you"

Those conditions were very advantageous; if that were the case, it would have been enough for Haku to use an object of his property to contain the spirit, and that he never separated from it. However, Haku was not someone who was satisfied with so little: he wanted to have absolute guarantee that Inpu would only obey him and his siblings. "How do I bind you into the item, but still remain your only user?"

Inpu bit his lip. That dragon was definitely much more cunning and shrewd than he expected. "You ask a lot, young mortal. The only solution to this question of yours is to establish in advance who owns the ownership of the object in which I will be contained; through a specific spell that will be performed immediately before the transfer of the link from your sister to the item, those people will become the only ones who can give me orders, even if ownership of the item passes to someone else, and so it will until the mana in the item runs out and I'm expelled from this world. It's a complicated spell and..."

"I can learn that, dragons have perfect memories" Serengal interrupted him. "Just tell me what I need and how to do it"

Inpu let out an annoyed snort. He had hoped to be able to deter those dragons, but apparently his fate was now sealed. "All you need is an object on which you can write the names of the users, I would suggest a scroll. On this you will have to write the name of each user with its blood. Then, when we start the spell, you, my mistress, you will have to bind my essence to each of these names. To do this you will have to..."

"Wait, let's get on with the job" Haku said. "Corgorin, go find a scroll and make each member of our family sign with his blood. In the case of Kotaru, Maldor, Sisna and Malchia make a small cut and you sign using their blood. And Serengal too, since now she cannot leave her actual avatar. All this dragon blood will also provide a huge amount of mana, so we won't have to worry about supplying him with more for a while. When you're done, come back here so we can complete this ritual"

Corgorin nodded and ran away. Inpu spent the next twenty minutes carefully explaining to Serengal how to sever the link between them and create a new one with an object and above all to put control over it exclusively to those whose names were written on the parchment. Serengal, being a dragon, memorized everything and learned quickly, and soon had the whole spell clear in her head. As soon as Corgorin returned carrying a scroll with the names of all their family members written on it, Haku wrote his own, the last one left, and then set the scroll on the ground and let Serengal perform the ritual. His sister drew several magic circles in the sand and then began chanting the spell. Within moments, Inpu's body dissolved and transformed into a strange mist that flew towards the parchment and penetrated inside each of the names written there, which became gold. The parchment glowed with light and seemed to transform into a small sun, then returned to normal, although the writing on it remained gold.

As soon as Serengal signaled that the ritual was over, Haku picked up the scroll from the ground and ordered: "Inpu! Come out now!"

From the scroll the mist emerged again and condensed forming the figure of the spirit. "The ritual went perfectly. I await commands, my masters" he declared, this time addressing all three dragons present since they were all his masters.

Haku snorted satisfied. There was just one last thing he wanted to make sure. "How do I know when the mana holding you to this scroll is running out?"

"As the mana runs out, the letters will lose their luster" Inpu replied pointing to the letters on the parchment which glowed with warm golden light. "One by one they will become opaque. By observing them you will always know how much mana is left"

Haku smiled. Now he could control that spirit for all eternity. It would have been enough to wet the scroll with a little dragon's blood whenever at least half of the letters on it had lost their luster. "Here, you should keep it" Haku said handing the parchment to Serengal. "You have captured the spirit, so you have the right to use him more than anyone else"

"Hey! I captured the spirit too!" Corgorin exclaimed.

"Yes, but we only have one parchment and we can't divide it. And also you are irresponsible, you would be capable of losing it or throwing it away by mistake" Haku replied, and Serengal chuckled and stuck her tongue out at her sister. Corgorin wanted to argue back, but she couldn't because her brother's accusations were in fact all true.

Having resolved that brief spat, Haku turned back to Inpu. "Now that I'm sure you'll never escape, we can save a little. I have a lot of questions for you" he said, then he narrowed his lids, reducing his eyes in two slits. "To begin with, what are you spirits really?"