75. The Checkup
"Do I really have to hold this pose?"
Lilith's cheeks flushed like cherry petals.
The Little White Dragon lifted her nightshirt at Typhon's request.
The White Dragon bit the hem, baring a belly white and flat as fresh snow.
"Mm. I need to watch how your power moves," Typhon murmured, voice steady as a metronome. "In your case it's Star Energy, a river under skin."
"Energy tends to gather in one place," she added, eyes like pins on Lilith's navel. "Most folks center it in the heart. Some, like you, in the belly."
Typhon had shooed Nidhogg out, like wind sweeping leaves. The room held only the two of them, quiet as a sealed jar.
The Little White Dragon had adapted a little, shyness melting like frost in morning.
Yet the Silver Dragon's direct stare pinned her like a needle. She wanted to sink into the floor like a pebble into a pond.
Awkwardness prickled like ants.
Lilith grabbed a small question like a float. "So what's the difference between Star Energy and magic?"
"Not much," Typhon said, tone flat as stone. "Just names."
Astrologers lump the current inside us with what we draw from the Star Canvas, and call it all Star Energy.
Mages call the stuff that shapes their spells mana or magic. No real difference—just two paths wearing different moss from long use.
"I’m pretty sure the first Astrologer class mentioned that," Typhon went on, words tapping like rain. "You didn’t drift off like a kite, did you?"
She asked while still staring at Lilith’s stomach, her chatter clacking like beads. Her hands didn’t rest; she poked Lilith’s belly. "Odd spot here. Hold your breath and let me see."
"Oww, quit poking."
Pain pricked like needles.
The Little White Dragon sucked a breath, yet she tensed her abdomen on command, letting Typhon prod.
She clenched her teeth to trap the breath like a bird in a cage. Words squeezed out. "I did listen in class. It was Asterios who never told me."
"But even I know—you're the teacher's favorite; how could she skip basics?" Typhon drew her hand back, lifted her gaze like a blade. "Did you tell her something before class?"
"I told her I'd taken basics in the human kingdom," Lilith nodded, the motion small as a ripple.
She had studied there a week, a brief candle of time. Enough to learn a slice of history, enough to know why she fought the Taint—then she set out against the Demon King.
The rest, the Little White Dragon never really learned, pages left blank like winter fields.
"That tracks," Typhon nodded, understanding settling like dust. "She likely assumed you knew, so she skipped it."
"Anyway, it's nothing heavy. If you didn't know, you didn't. No one's going to laugh over that straw."
"Alright."
Relief loosened her chest like thaw. She saw Typhon stand and hurried to ask, "So how's the checkup?"
"No major issues. Just what I guessed," Typhon said, slipping off a crystal lens that caught light like ice.
The Silver Dragon traced shapes in the air before the White Dragon, sketching the picture. "Your powers were balanced like scales. Then your Stellar Magic leaped forward in one bound."
"It crowded the slots Frost Magic used to share. The extra Star Energy spilled like unruly water and stirred up trouble in your channels."
"That's why you fell ill."
"W-what should I do next...?"
Anxiety knotted her fingers on her hem like ivy.
It was her first sickness since coming to this world. Nidhogg said it had been bad, a storm that passed only because they moved fast. She still worried it could strike on the road again, a thunderclap in clear sky.
"Don't worry," Typhon soothed, voice like warm tea. "Your body now treats Stellar Magic as the main current. You can grow it freely; you won't trip over it again."
"This happens a lot with newborn dragons," she added, a rueful smile like a crescent moon. "One kid tried to learn everything under the sun."
"He packed his insides with a tangle of weeds. Got sick every day."
"It took a council of mentors, days of work, to drag him back from the gate of ghosts. What you had barely counts."
"Got it."
Lilith nodded obediently, like a bell tapped once. At the tale of that unlucky whelp, her legs trembled like reeds. She clutched her hem, face pale as milk, thankful she hadn't been so greedy—or she'd be the same.
"Then why did Mother let me take two teachers at once?"
The thought struck like a moth to flame. She’d apprenticed to Asterios and Fafnir together. Silver Dragon and Black Dragon, two different paths. If she learned both, wouldn't she fall ill like this again?
"Because a bout of sickness won't kill a dragon," Typhon said with a shrug, light as wind. "Even if the death arts in you jumped to Nidhogg’s level overnight, you'd just run a longer fever than last time. Not a big deal."
Then the Silver Dragon bent close, breath a whisper against her ear. "Between us, her spellwork's pretty trash. You can tease her with that someday. Don't say I said it, or she'll clobber me."
"You're awful."
Lilith pushed the suddenly leaning Silver Dragon away, disdain flicking like a tail. "Nidhogg and I are on the same side. I won't mock her just because you said so!"
Of course, words are wind. Lilith tucked the line away like a hidden dagger, planning a sharp payback for Nidhogg. If she ever says Lilith's no good in bed again, Lilith will fire back with this, right on target.
o(´^｀)o
"Right, right—what are you doing next?" Lilith asked in a rush, words tumbling like beads. "Aren't you staying in Lamter a few days?"
"Of course," Typhon nodded, like a tree settling in wind. "I had Nidhogg set me up a room. I'll stay with you until you leave Lamter. When you head to your next stop, I'll fly back to the Dragon Territory."
"How's that? Happy?"
"Of course," Lilith said, joy rising like a warm tide. Typhon pinched her cheek; the little dragon shook her hand off like a cat. "But I'm busy. Better be ready to play the lonely housewife."
"I’m not your wife. Why would I play house alone?" Typhon snorted a laugh. "Busy with what, exactly?"
"Like... going up the mountain?"
Lilith tilted her head, a sparrow curious on a branch.
