"We are idiots." Lith and Solus said in unison.
"No, you are not." The Hydra shook her head. "Yours is an incomplete version. It's perfectly normal that you failed to understand the scope of the Hands' abilities. Had you imprinted the original, you would have been forced to keep them for yourselves.
"Which would have also meant that I would have never shown them to my mother, she wouldn't have taught me how to use the Hands, and I would have never taught you in turn. Your generosity came around nicely."
"You would be right, if we didn't already know about the sharing ability of the Menadion's set after trying Scarlett's Eyes." Solus took a deep breath and conjured a plain pince-nez made of stone, offering them to Faluel.
"That frigging cat had the Eyes?" The Hydra took the priceless artifact from Solus's hands and put it on her nose. "This is amazing, I bet that this is how it feels to have Dragon E-"
The tremendous load of information from her own cave and her apprentices flooded her brain. At first, Faluel felt dizzy, then Mogar started to spin like a frenzied top on steroids, making her puke her guts out until nothing but bile was left.
"Solus, why didn't you give her the trial version?" Lith took the Eyes back before the Hydra's eyes rolled back into her head.
"I'm sorry. It's just that we are always trying to get used to the full power of the Eyes so it became their default form." Solus used darkness magic to clean the cave and get rid of the terrifying stench that several half-digested deer emitted.
"Dammit, guys. You have to be careful with that thing. The Eyes fried my brain to the point that I've trouble remembering what I did during the last two days." Faluel said after washing her mouth and assessing the damage.
Part of her short-term memory had been replaced by the information that the Eyes had collected while she wore them. She used her breathing technique, Lifestream, to get rid of the redundant data about her own workings and keep only those about Lith and Solus.
"Wow, you guys have progressed by leaps and bounds while in the Desert." She said while pointing at Lith's armor, Solus's Sage Staff, and Friya's railgun. "I wish I had the ability to craft stuff like that back at your age.
"They are small masterpieces."
"Thanks, but that would have never happened without your teachings, the techniques we acquired in Urgamakka, and Grandma using Creation Magic to endlessly recycle the materials." Lith said.
"Otherwise I would have lacked the crystals and the Adamant necessary to perform enough experiments."
"Creation what?" Faluel demanded a full explanation about the tower's abilities and the details about their stay in the Desert, becoming more pissed off the more she learned.
"Gods, I hate you guys so much." She said with a sigh. "Can I have a tour of the tower? Pretty please with a cherry on top?"
Faluel tugged at Lith's shirt forcing him to look in her big eyes while she did her best impression of a puppy stare. She was very lovely and he was very lonely so it was super effective.
"Yes."
"Great! Time for round two." She took the Eyes again, but before putting them on, she reverted to her Hydra form.
The Eyes of Menadion grew with her by collecting dust, debris, and everything non-magical that they found in the lair.
"Oh, gods, this is amazing! Please tell me that you have the original Eyes as well. I'll do anything if you give them to me." Now that she had seven heads and the burden of the artifact was reduced accordingly, the Eyes had become a true source of wonder.
Faluel could not only see the spells, pseudo, and power cores of everything in her lair, she could also read the flow of the world energy going through each of her magical workings and see which runes were less efficient, making the enchantments weaker.
"I can't believe I made so many mistakes!" Yet her voice was full of joy like that of a child in front of their birthday presents. "Let me take some notes."
"Do you mind sharing with the rest of the class?" Friya tugged at her leg since Faluel's tail was wagging like crazy, causing small shockwaves as it moved in excitement.
"Oh, sure." One of Faluel's heads created a mind link with her apprentices while the other heads used water magic to fill several pages of notes about how to improve her creations.
"Fuck me sideways!" Lith and Solus said in unison, realizing how even with the support of the tower, they had barely started to scratch the surface of the Eye's potential.
"You said that I get seven heads as well in my hybrid form, right?" Suddenly Friya didn't find being the Harbinger of a Hydra underwhelming anymore.
"Of course." Faluel moved her heads around the cave taking notes until even her seven brains started to hurt, forcing her to stop and turn back into her human form. "I'm the first Hydra of Mogar who experienced Dragon Eyes! We need to celebrate."
Faluel popped the cork of a bottle of Red Dragon. The magical liquor was capable of making an Emperor Beast intoxicated by drinking a few glasses instead of a river's worth of alcohol.
Friya became drunk and unconscious simply by smelling its vapors.
"Oops!" Faluel shrugged while detoxifying and waking up her apprentice.
"Where are the Eyes, sweetheart?" Faluel said with a flirty tone that Lith had never heard her use before.
'Is it the euphoria, the Red Dragon, or the greed of Dragons talking?' He thought.
"Scarlett didn't need them anymore after becoming a Guardian so she gave them to me…"
"Excellent." Faluel said with a sensual whisper while coming dangerously close and rubbing her body against Lith's.
"…and asked me to give them to Kalla, which I did. She has them." Lith rushed to say.
"Fuck!" Suddenly her lovely visage twisted into a mask of rage as she stomped her foot to the ground, swearing with growing intensity until her words turned into roars. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!"
'Definitely greed.' Lith thought.
"Fucking cat! Fucking bear! They ruined my day." Faluel conjured a chair and a bowl of ice cream that she flooded with Red Dragon.
She sat with the grace of a sack of bricks and ate the soft cream by stabbing it with the spoon and emitting roars in between mouthfuls.
'Mogar hath no fury like a disappointed Dragon.' Solus said via mind link and the others nodded.
"Well, master Faluel, you still have the Hands." Friya said, trying to cheer her up. "Without them, you wouldn't be capable of using the information collected by the Eyes to their fullest.
"On top of that, Lith can always lend the Eyes to you whenever you need them. Teaching tool, remember?"
"I know." Faluel said with a majestic burp that echoed throughout the cave. "But do you know how much I dreamed about having Origin Flames or at least the Dragon Eyes? They are the dream of every Forgemaster and that jackass has both. It's not fair."
The Hydra clung to Friya, whining and pointing at Lith like a little girl telling her mother about a boy who had been mean to her.
