Chapter 1.16 – A fireside chat
Fiona used all her willpower to try to keep her cock under control, mainly staring at rocks. The adrenaline always did something to her. She was partially successful.
Qaerlyz didn't help. There was something... alluring about her. She had acknowledged them as useful, but in the way a chef acknowledges his chopping board as sturdy. She wasn't even a knife. Useful.
That turned her on far too much. Qae clearly viewed her as a stupid berserker, momentarily useful and mildly interesting. If Fiona had been a super powerful cool dragon time paladin, she might have thought that about everyone else as well.
The awkward silence stretched, as Qae had removed her gloves and taken out some sort of journal. She'd taken out a leather pack and unfolded a traveling writing kit, and was staring intently down at the paper. Occasionally writing some notes. Stopping and looking back at what she'd written, before sighing in disappointment.
Fiona was fascinated by the woman, so aloof, so above... everything. She didn't even see it in a cruel, mean way. She just knew she was a more accomplished, important being due to... Being a dragon? Protecting time?
She probably was more important than a horny berserker and a monk with a ghost octopus. Fiona had never put much stock in 'being important' though. Being interesting was far more interesting to her, and Qaerlyz certainly seemed interesting.
They sat there in silence for a few minutes, the sun lowering on the horizon - She wasn't worried about Liddy, it seemed the monsters would only appear at the braziers and if anyone was gonna do well in the sea it was the monk.
"I suppose if you're gonna stare at me, we might as well have a conversation." Qae suddenly spoke, not looking up from her notepad, but stretching her arms as far as they could in the armour.
Fiona blushed, not realizing quite how intently she had been staring.
"Well... Can I ask you some questions?" Fiona started, wanting to know more about the curious stern woman.
"Can you? I am sure you can. And you may" Qae kept scribbling in her book.
"So... Like, do you have wings?" Fiona cringed at her own question. It was so stupid. "Is this like a human form - do you have a dragon one? can you transform?"
Qae sighed.
"This is the expected line of inquiry I suppose. Most people do not meet dragons." She stayed focused on her notebook for a moment, before putting her fountain pen down for a second.
"The answer is relative. In an absolute sense, I can - but the tower limits the powers of mythical beings on lower floors." She looked at Fiona. "Sorry, do I... Do I need to use simpler words?" Fiona blushed again.
"No, I... I understand" She tried to not be offended. She supposed berserkers weren't particularly verbose. "I don't quite fulfill the stereotype of my class - not mentally at least."
Qae looked uncertain but continued on.
"Yes, I do have a true form, and wings, and fire. And things you may not have considered." She looked at her hands, seeming sort of whistful. "And if I had those here, my power would have collapsed this dungeon. Not defeated everything with ease - erased the dungeon."
Fiona was awestruck - she really was dust to this creature.
"So it restricts you?" Fiona pondered. "Can you not resist it?"
"I could, but I would be removed from the tower. The tower is all-powerful - but it uses its power efficiently. The higher floors will allow me to use more of my power, in line with the creatures on it."
Fiona nodded - that made sense, even from a gaming point of view. The Tower implemented level scaling so super powerful beings couldn't trivialize it.
"So what floor will you be unrestricted?" Fiona asked, curious.
"Myself - and the rest of my dragon clade - have attempted to make the calculations but, we do not believe the floor where I would be fully unrestricted has been reached yet." She said matter of factly. Fiona's eyes went wide - how powerful was this woman? "I should have access to a... reduced version of my dragon form around floor thirty."
"Reduced?" Fiona asked.
Qae didn't quite answer but raised her head up into the air and pursed her lips. She blew a flame - larger than what she'd done to light the brazier. But nothing that could be used as an attack - like a torch maybe. Just a little burst.
"My true flame would have boiled the seas, erased this world. I still have access to my flame- but it's... Reduced. Suitable for the floor." She sounded, not quite sad about it. Uncertain - there was a loss there, even if it was temporary. Fiona could understand, it must be a big part of your identity and suddenly it's just. Not there.
"It must be difficult." Fiona said, smiling at the woman.
"It is an adjustment." Qae took a breath. "I know it will return, but I just have to manage." She stretched her arm again, rolling her neck.
"Are you okay?" Fiona asked.
"Yes. Well - armour isn't great for casual writing." Qae stretched her back again.
"Why don't you take it off? Just while we're sat here?" Fiona asked, pondering.
"That's.. I guess you are a berserker in some way. I can't take it off on my own - there's too many buckles, straps - some I can't reach." The dragon seemed annoyed, but not too bothered. Fiona sat silently for a moment but eventually figured she'd have to take the initiative.
"Would you like me to help take it off?" She wasn't sure why, but she felt comfortable with this dragon. Maybe it's because she was so... mythical? So alloof. She wasn't flirty or made awkward comments, not that she minded those. She just didn't do much to fluster her. Sure she insinuated she was stupid sometimes, but... It wasn't malicious. Just what her expectation was.
Which someone Fiona found incredibly attractive, and she had to lean both her hands on her loincloth to keep it down. No, little Fiona. This was a nice chat with a potential new friend. Stop it
Qae blinked, not having even considered that Fiona could be useful. "I suppose it is a simple enough task. You would have to help me don it again in the morning."
Fiona nodded. "Of course. I'm sure it would help you get a good night's rest too - it's better if we are well rested."
"Indeed. I can get the boots off on my own - if you come over I will show you. It is the same concept."
Fiona got up and shuffled over, trying to angle herself so her bulge wasn't too visible.
Qae demonstrated the buckle - it was a simple, but clever system, leather straps tucked away cleanly, safety on each buckle. Everything so it wouldn't come loose during combat. She'd placed her notebook next to her on the floor, the lines and scribbles in it familiar to Fiona. She couldn't place it though - the actual symbols were strange - in some other language, but the lines and shapes? It niggled at her mind as Qae showed her how to separate the plates of armour.
Once the dragon's plated boots were off - boots under the armour also coming off, and this majestic mythical creature wiggled her now free toes, Fiona got to work. She started around Qae's neck and followed her instructions. Every few minutes though, her eyes were drawn back to the notepad.
She'd seen that before. She'd drawn that before. But where? It was slightly off, and incomplete.
Qae was wearing a simple, white long-sleeved tunic and black trousers underneath the armour, and as the armour came off the woman's figure was revealed. It did distract Fiona from the notebook, but not fully. It was so close. University. Studies.
Qae had a slender figure, but not without delicious curves. Her ass was shapely and full, and her proud, pert breasts were comfortable handfuls, hidden well under all that armour. But she was narrow, none of the muscle of Fiona or Liddy. Fiona figured if it was a magically transformed body, strength might not need to be shown in muscle. She was sleek. Elegant. A supermodel is the only word Fiona could think of. An alien ethereal beauty. The horns framing her face absolutely enhanced everything.
A nearly seven-foot tall, draconic, sup- "That's a Turing machine!" Fiona suddenly exclaimed, realizing what Qae had been drawing, just as she freed the woman from the final piece of armour.
"What?" The dragon noted.
"Your notepad - We call it a Turing machine. It's a model to compute solutions based on integers you input right?"
Qae blinked, entirely dumbfounded and confused.
"But you're missing a bit."
There was silence for a moment.
"You are a berserker." Finally, Qae spoke. Fiona nodded.
"Yes."
"And not only do you recognize what this mathematical model is, but you also have enough familiarity with it to recognize that it is incomplete?"
"Yes."
"And I suppose you can complete it?"
Fiona nodded. "May I?"
"Go ahead." The dragon shifted to the side and indicated Fiona take a seat, a bemused look on her face.
"I will use the annotation of my w- of my sphere. I hope that's ok." Fiona started drawing, of course, it's a Turing machine. What else would the brilliant time dragon be scribbling?
"So you're missing a rule - the way you've set it up the machine wouldn't be able to detect flawed logic, and could get itself stuck in a loop" She explained, parts of her brain that had not been used for a few days springing back to life, desperate to come and play. "If we add this." She scribbled. "Now we have a basic computation model." She showed Qae, going over the specific changes made, and explained her notations and symbols. Earth's symbols, as she did subconsciously she felt a warm tingle on her breast - where she'd been pierced. Less sore now, the healing potion and Timmy's passive heaving having helped. When the pink sparkles between the two started... The first came from here.
Qae was stunned. Listening to Fiona's explanation trying to understand her notation. Fiona loved it - her master's in computer science combined with her love for mathematics. She was a developer by trade, but math had always been... A passion, she supposed.
"This... I can't believe you have solved this" Qae said. An actual hint of respect in her voice. "Would you like to see another problem - one of our scholars came up with it, and it has yet to be solved?"
Fiona nodded, lost in the maths. Not noticing the glowing pink flow, nearly imperceptible between the two women.
Qae flipped pages. "The first one is functional - this one is just a puzzle, I guess."
She got to a page, and written in the margins was a simple set of things Fiona recognized - she'd picked up some of the numbers, and the symbols used for variables.
x³+y³=z³
Now that her mind had adjusted, she knew she was looking at mathematical problems, she immediately knew what she was looking at.
"That's... You're doing Fermat's Last Theorem as a fun puzzle?" Fiona asked.
"Fun is relative. No one solved it yet." Qae shrugged. "It keeps the mind busy."
"We... It has been solved. On my sphere." Qae let out a sharp breath. Fiona appreciated it, clearly she realized how complicated this was. "It took several centuries to solve." The pink sparks were intensifying now, dancing around the two lost in mathematics.
"Do you understand the concept of Elliptic Curves?" Fiona asked the dragon.
"You are a berserker. What? No." Qae was in a state of complete fascinated disbelief.
"Ok I barely do, but a man on my sphere did. Let's see if I can remember."
Fiona explained the concept, and - tried her best to show Qae the solution as the sparkles flowed between the two oblivious to either, lost in the world of hard, theoretical mathematics. To her immense pleasure, Qae did have concepts that Fiona didn't know, and the Berserker lapped up the theory. Mathematics related to calculating relative time, and functional formulas for understanding the very real concepts Qae was sworn to protect. It made sense they were more advanced in those things.
Liddy returned dripping wet from the ocean carrying three enormous fish and saw the telltale sign of the nearly glowing sparkles between them. Overhearing a bit of the conversation, getting a headache she tended to the fish she'd caught letting the two nerds talk on.
[User Satisfied] [Fiona Ragehammer has received a permanent +1 To Stamina] [Passion Shared] |