An aperture in the veil of worldskin opens, just for an instant. Then there's a thunderous boom, and the cavern is filled with a cloud of dust and the staccato cacophony of rocks and pebbles flying away from the center of the circle and clattering against the walls and Zuragazh himself.

After he clears the dust away, the dragon will find a glossy sphere of deep, bloody red embedded in the floor.

...interesting. And quite powerful, too, judging by the strength of the backlash! 

The beings to which Zuragazh is accustomed tend to take more recognisable forms, although he is aware that it is often only a semblance. He wonders whether this creature is incapable of presenting itself in any other way, or whether it is simply choosing not to do so. 

If he wants to claim this creature, which he does, Zuragazh needs to understand it. To that end, he leans forward to study it more closely, careful to let no part of his body cross the boundary of the circle. 

The sphere seems almost completely inactive at the moment. If Zuragazh looks very closely, he may spot the barest, faintest flicker of movement at the very center of the sphere, as though its core contains a tiny droplet of liquid.

Neither centuries-old dragons nor wizards are noted for their impatience.

Zuragazh is both, and he has nothing better to do with his time than wait. In anticipation that this project might be time-consuming, he ate well before starting his preparations, and will not even begin to feel hunger for at least another day and night. 

He is content to sit and watch the sphere, trying to discern whether the movement at its heart is constant or changing over time. 

It is indeed changing! It's grown, specifically, both in size and complexity.

After two days, the liquid seems to fill the entire interior of the sphere, with the hard gloss forming on a thin shell to contain it. That liquid is in turn filled with whorls and flumes, both large and small, all moving in an exceedingly complex dance.

Late on that second day, a portion of the flows will bend and contort into something resembling the rough bodyplan of a dragon, floating near the upper cusp of the sphere.

In those two days, Zuragazh has left the room only a handful of times, and never for more than an hour or so. 

The first of those excursions, taking only a few minutes, was to retrieve a small lantern containing a bound imp, which has since been instructed to keep watch on the sphere whenever Zuragazh is absent or asleep, and alert him immediately to any significant changes. A pair of shells, linked with a simple enchantment to conduct sound from one to the other, allows Zuragazh to hear the imp even when he is out of ordinary earshot of the room with the circle. 

When the dragon shape appears, Zuragazh is lying outstretched along the curve of the cavern wall, a good distance away from the circle. His whole twenty-foot body length, head to tail, takes up about a third of the room's circumference. He is watching the sphere lazily, almost mesmerised by the dancing whorls. 

The imp, also watching the sphere for lack of anything else interesting to do, has been identifying various blobs as resembling objects or creatures for the last two hours. So, when it pipes up, "Hey, that one looks kinda like a dragon," Zuragazh does not immediately think anything of it. 

...Hold on. That blob does look remarkably like a dragon. He gets to his feet and moves closer to look at it from a different angle. 

That definitely looks at least generally dragon-ish! It's growing, too, and if Zuragazh continues watching for the next half-hour or so, he will see if grow to occupy the entirety of the sphere, and promptly continue growing, the sphere holding tight to the skin of the expanding shape, steadily becoming more detailed and lifelike, until there is now a dragon that resembles Zuragazh himself, except for being about one fourth as long (but with the same proportions, rather than the juvenile ones that such a size would ordinarily imply) and scales of the same blood-colored gloss as the sphere which became them.

This small dragon is looking quite intently at Zuragazh, and says something in an utterly alien language, which if Zuragazh has translation on hand can be interpreted as a greeting.

He has access to various methods of magical translation, but none are active at present. 

"I'm sorry, I can't understand you," he says in the local vernacular. "Do you speak this language?" If the comprehension issue is symmetrical, that should suffice to illustrate the problem anyway. 

The small dragon looks away thoughtfully for a moment, presumably having ascertained the issue. They move towards the edge of the circle and test it carefully with a claw.

There appears to be an invisible barrier of some kind, going straight up from the inner ring of chalk. The circle flashes blue when the barrier is tested. 

The small dragon quickly pulls back their claw and nods, as much to themself as to Zuragazh. They pace about the circle for a moment, examining the cavern floor, before seemingly deciding against something. After another moment, the small dragon extrudes a thin opaque film from one claw, like a sheet of vellum, which holds a simplistic diagram. There are a picture of two dragons, one significantly smaller than the other at the top, a picture of two claws touching below that, and a picture of what is the little dragon's best guess at the internal structure of a dragon's brain and vocal structure below that. The little dragon promptly shows this to Zuragazh.

It is reasonably clear what the small red dragon wants from him. The question is whether Zuragazh will like the results. 

From what he understands of the picture, touching claws with them will let the small dragon do something that involves Zuragazh's brain and...vocal cords? Presumably something to do with speech. If it were him, Zuragazh would want to solve the language barrier before anything else, and this at least looks like it might be an attempt at that.

If it turns out to be something more hostile, well, even magic as powerful as this creature has demonstrated is unlikely to do much damage to a dragon as old and self-possessed as Zuragazh. 

He calls upon his fundamental and natural conviction that no outside force should alter his body or mind in any way, setting it at the forefront of his mind. Then, Zuragazh reaches out, holding his forelimb in the air so as not to smudge the chalk, and extends a single claw into the containing circle. 

The small dragon will reach out and touch Zuragazh's claw with their own. For an instant, Zuragazh can feel the magic of the being he has summoned, and it does not alter him even a little, but it does observe him, briefly and with limited scope.

The little dragon will lower their claw, focus inwardly for a moment, and then speak with eloquent language. "Thank you for extending me that trust. I've ascertained that you've summoned me. May I ask for what purpose?"

...well, that's a convenient solution to the language issue. Zuragazh does not argue with the little dragon's assumption that his actions displayed trust, rather than confidence in his own ability to handle any hostile act on their part. 

"I hope to establish a mutually-beneficial arrangement between the two of us," he says instead, "the details of which will depend on your capabilities and your goals. I can already tell that you are exceedingly powerful, but I have no idea whether, for example, you have any use for a reliable supply of gold, or of cured meat." 

"Gold can be useful, though it's chemistry is not well suited to...the Coils--" this phrase the little dragon says with some tentativeness, "Cured meat would be much better for my magic. As for my goals, I seek to bring freedom from death and hunger and the limitation of forms wherever I can. I wield the Coils and the boundless strength in them which my mentor invested in me to achieve this, through transformation of flesh and the sharing of my souls."

"I can also supply other substances," Zuragazh clarifies. "Those were merely examples. In the pursuit of such...ambitious goals, you will surely need all the resources you can acquire."

He is momentarily distracted from further questioning. "—pardon me if this is a rude question, but did you say that you have more than one soul? Or were you referring to them as yours in some other sense?" 

"Indeed I imagine many resources will be needed, and yes, I am possessed of many souls, on the order of ten million million."

That...is a large number. So large that the language they're speaking doesn't have a word for it. 

"...here, the customary number is one soul to a person." He doesn't quite make it a question. 

“Mm.” The little dragon nods again, considering something. “I couldn’t find it anywhere in your body, so I only assume it has some manner of remote connection. My own are also the substance of my body. “

The little dragon turns their focus internally, similar to when they produced the diagram, but this time producing a plump golden berry from their claw. “This is the form I often give to my gift of freedom. It contains a soul, quiescent except for the instincts and memories to allow a quick and smooth integration of the gift within the recipient’s mind, as well as nutrients and metabolites to replenish the recipient’s bodily energy. I offer this to you, for your examination and as a token of good will to begin our negotiation.”

Zuragazh peers suspiciously at the berry.

"Would you tell me a little more about your..." He echoes the other's words. "Gift of freedom?" 

They nod. "It is limited form of my magic, though only as limited as I have made it in myself. Access to the boundless strength, with which to perform transformations upon your body. It is the means by which I made my request earlier, and made this gift berry itself, as well as how I formed this facsimile-shape."

"I generally find myself satisfied with the current shape of my body," Zuragazh remarks.

"I would like to study this berry further, using some of my own tools. With your permission, perhaps I could examine your body with the same instruments, to better understand how it is constructed?" 

"There are many things to change of one's body than simply its shape, and certainly you may. It would be unbecoming to have taken a look at you and not allow the same."

Zuragazh rises sinuously to his feet.

"I must gather my tools," he explains. "I shall return shortly—not much more than, hm, twice or thrice the length of time that we have been conversing." 

The little dragon nods yet again. They are more than patient enough to wait that time without complaint.

Zuragazh leaves the room.

The imp, which has been obediently silent since the conversation started, stands up from where it's been sitting curled up in the corner of its lantern. When the little dragon is looking in its direction, it presses its nose to the glass and pulls a silly face. 

The little dragon considers it for a moment, before deciding it can't hurt, and pulls a similar face back, facial structuring warping where necessary.

Oh, excellent! 

The imp jumps up and down laughing, then starts pulling more weird faces to see if the little dragon will copy those. 

They certainly will! They're happy to give the imp some entertainment, their job doesn't seem terribly fun and the little dragon imagines they can use some.

In this way, they will pass the time quite pleasantly until Zuragazh comes back. 

When the imp hears his footsteps outside the cave, it squeaks and scrambles out of its latest silly pose—bent over backwards in an arch, looking at the little dragon upside down. 

The little dragon (who has ended up a bit un-dragon-shaped over the course of this game) rights themself and returns to their simulacrum-shape of Zuragazh, though not with the hurried haste of the imp, and returns their gaze to the returning larger dragon.

Zuragazh pretends to ignore these antics as he walks in.

He has a bag slung around his neck, the better to transport the various magical instruments he's fetched from his workroom. The first one he pulls out looks somewhat like an oversized magnifying glass, with a long curved handle designed to be held by a dragon's hand. 

"I'd like to examine both you and your berry through this lens," he explains to the small dragon. "It will let me observe some of your magical properties." 

"Observe at will. I can take a different pose or shape as well, at your request." The small dragon retakes the gift-berry from where they set it on the ground while playing with the imp.

And Zuragazh will hold the lens up to his eye and squint through it.

That...hmm. That is a lot of magic. It's completely unlike any magic he's ever heard of before, and therefore his lens can't tell him much about what it's doing beyond existing.

He can see, however, that whatever the little dragon meant by 'souls', it doesn't correspond to what Zuragazh thinks of as a 'mind': the little dragon is very much not composed of ten trillion separate minds by local standards. They definitely have...more mind-substance than is usually present in a single person, by quite a bit...but it looks to be all one consciousness. That makes some things simpler, at least. 

"Interesting," he says aloud. "Would you mind putting the berry down again, so that I can see it more clearly in isolation?" 

"Not at all." They'll place it back down at one edge of the circle and move to the opposite.

Looking through the lens, It's clear that the berry has some of the same sort of psychic substance as the little dragon, and is filled with the same magic, though both in vastly smaller quantities. Notably, the berry's mind-substrate doesn't contain anything that looks like a proper mind, but it's not totally blank either. It seems passive, but not static. Quiescent, maybe?

Very interesting. That matches up with what the little dragon has said about the berry, as far as it goes, but Zuragazh has no way of knowing whether they were telling the truth about its effects.

"Is it particularly costly for you to produce these berries?" he asks while considering his next move. 

"Not in the slightest." The little dragon replies, raising a claw, closing it, then opening it to reveal a clawful of additional berries (inspection of which will indicate the same psycho-magical readings as the first).

"I see. Are these particularly tailored to me, or to dragons in general, or would they work exactly the same for any creatures that ate them?" 

"I've taken the overall architectural and biological trends of your brain into account when designing the knowledge-imbuement, so I can't promise that specific aspect will work as quickly or as perfectly in lifeforms with radically different brain-structures from yours. Otherwise, yes, it should work just as well for anything that can absorb the fruit's juices."

Zuragazh nods.

"Could you make one tailored to, say, this imp?" he asks, tone carefully one of idle curiosity as he gestures to the lantern still sitting on the floor near the circle. 

(The imp squeaks.) 

"To make one to equal specificity I would need to scan it as I did you earlier, but given that, yes I could."

"For that, you just need to touch it briefly, correct?" 

"And its consent, or at least non-resistance."

"Hmm."

He looks at the imp. "Do you want to be able to change your body, as they do?" he asks it, indicating the little dragon. 

The imp nods. 

"Good. I'm going to let you out of the lantern so they can touch you and make you a personalised magic berry. Don't smudge the chalk, and don't step inside the circle: just put your hand across it. Do you understand?" 

Nodnodnod goes the imp. 

Zuragazh flicks open the catch on the lantern so the door opens for the imp to climb out. It scurries up to the chalk circle containing the little dragon, stopping before its toes quite touch the chalk. Turning away and screwing its eyes shut, it determinedly sticks its arm out over the line. 

The little dragon steps up to where the imp has reached into the circle and taps its hand with a claw. Depending on the imp's magical sense it can probably sense some kind of magic passing through but not touching or acting upon its body, and if Zuragazh uses the lens to observe it he will likewise find a pulse of the same magic which suffuses the the little dragon and the berries, lightning-quick, expanding out from the point of contact and through the imp's body.

The little dragon now knows the imp's form, at least on a physical level, including its brain. Unless there's anything particularly ethereal or ephemeral about its physiology (admittedly a real possibility), they will then create a new berry with the same magical and psychic payload translated into the imp's format, which they will also make to have a noticeably different shape and color for the sake of clarity.

The imp flinches at the pulse of magic, but it doesn't pull away, keeping its arm stuck out for a few more seconds until it sheepishly opens its eyes and notices the scan is over. 

With a glance at Zuragazh for confirmation, it picks up the new berry and hesitantly takes a bite, bracing for another wave of unfamiliar magic. 

The berry is sweet, and tart, and has complex taste and aroma, though the imp may not have the experience to compare the flavor to, though it is broadly pleasant. This flavor is indeed accompanied by another wave of magic, though it's slower and less sudden than the scanning pulse, beginning more as an almost physical tingling in the imp's mouth, which spreads down its throat and into their chest, where it becomes a gentle warmth which then spreads outwards through its whole body. When that warmth reaches its head, a trickle of new-yet-familiar sensations and intuitions appear in the imp's mind. It now possesses the full complement of the Fallen One's power and prowess with the Coils.

Wow, that sure is some weird magic! The imp shivers. 

It mentally pokes its new intuitions. So what can it do with this thing, anyway?

So much is possible! If the imp is feeling tired or achey anywhere, for example, the Coils are ready and able to cure that right away. If it wants to change how it looks, it can! If it's ever wanted to be in two places at once, or even more, it can now, though it'll need to divvy up its biomass between all its bodies. If it finds another creature with an interesting ability or attribute, it can scan it the way the Fallen One scanned it and learn how it works and how to make it itself, and learn all sorts of other things as well. With a willing partner they can go so far as sharing memories or skills. That's really just the beginning, too, there is so much the Coils can do.

The imp starts by clearing up all the little aches and pains from being sat on a stone floor and before that being stuck in a lantern.

Then, with a glance at the little dragon to check they're watching, it tries turning the bones in one arm soft enough to bend like rubber. Waggle waggle waggle rubber arm! It giggles at the weird sensation.  

Excellent! The little dragon grins, in so far as dragon mouths grin. "I believe this creature would agree its life has been enriched."

The imp nods fervently. Nodnodnodnodnod. 

...hmm, the rubber arm was funny for a bit but it should probably revert back to having functioning bones now. It tries extruding dragon-like wings from its back instead. Does it have to move mass from elsewhere in its body, or can it just grow wings? Let's find out! 

It does need to shift mass around to form wings if it wants them right now, but the imp also helpfully knows now that if it's willing to wait a while, it could absorb mass from the air instead. It also knows, unintrusively and intuitively, how to shape and connect the underlying structure of the wings so that they're actually usable, ensuring they're flexible and mobile enough to not get in the way, and lots of other details that just make things smoother and more functional.

The little dragon looks from the imp to Zuragazh. "So, what do you think?"

What does he think?

Well. The imp seems satisfied—gleeful, in fact—but Zuragazh doesn't trust its judgment to notice if something was wrong. That it didn't seem to have any problem putting its arm back to normal is reassuring, though. 

"It appears to function as you described," he concedes out loud, watching the imp slowly grow wings. Still, caution urges him to wait. "Will you be terribly offended if I take a few days to think it over before accepting your offer myself?" 

“Not at all, that seems like a reasonably cautious course of action. Would you be willing to leave some reading material within view of this circle? I’d like to apprise myself of this world’s history and present situation in the meantime, if possible.”

"Of course. I shall select some titles from my personal collection, and leave you this imp to turn the pages. Is there anything else you require to be comfortable—cushions? Food? More or less light?" (The cave is, indeed, quite dimly lit.) 

"No, I'm perfectly comfortable as it is, though thank you for your consideration."

"Good. I will return shortly with some reading material for you."

Zuragazh leaves, after reminding the imp once again not to cross the chalk circle. He winds through the tunnels of his lair to the room where he keeps his books: history, geography, and natural sciences on one bookcase, and tomes of magic on another. Selecting a few works he judges both reliable and representative, he pulls them off the shelves with a whispered spell and stacks them in a basket to carry back. 

The whole trip only takes him about a quarter of an hour, and then he's back with his basket of books. 

By the time he gets back, the imp has wings big enough to fly with and is gleefully zipping in circles around the cavern. 

This little scamp is just adorable. Seeing people truly enjoy the gift of the coils warms the Fallen One’s heart.

“Thank you again. I hope that whatever endeavors you pursue during this time go well.”

With that, unless Zuragazh has anything else to ask of the little dragon, they will request the imp to show them the provided books, lining them up around the chalk circle. Several small, black pits form on the little dragon’s head, and they then direct the imp to open the books and begin flipping the pages, as fast as the pages can be flipped without risking any damage to them. The little dragon evidently has no issue reading several pages of dense text simultaneously.

All together, the Fallen One is looking to develop a good understanding of this world’s magic and high-level political situation, with an eye towards how it’s constituent peoples have reacted to other major magical happenings, and on the off-chance there’s some particularly strong parallel, how they might react to the Fallen One and their gift in particular.

The imp is going to zoom around the circle flipping pages as it passes them. Wheeeee! 

It turns out that this is not the most efficient method of flipping pages as fast as possible, and also flying takes energy. After a bit, the imp lands and swaps out the wings for a bunch of extra-long arms with which to turn pages. This is somewhat faster. 

The imp's simple joy and growing use of the Coils is delightful, prompting a modest chuckle from the little dragon. It's not much of a distraction either, they're more than capable of dividing their attention across all the books and keep watch of the imp at the same time. While the Fallen One makes a habit of trying to absorb information quickly, they're not going to chastise the imp for having some fun, and they doubt that such a relatively minor slowdown will actually impact their ability to read all these books during this trial period.

The Fallen One can glean the following information from their reading: 

The inhabitants of this world call it Kelovea. They believe it to be shaped like a vast boat floating on an even larger ocean. These books contain three contradictory stories of how this situation came to be, although all of them are presented by the authors as myths with no factual basis. 

There are widely agreed to be seven species of sapients living on the boat. They're listed in one book as (in approximate order of population): humans, dragons, stoneborn, merfolk, sirens, dreamers, and the 'hidden folk', which might or might not be the same as the species another book refers to as the 'little folk'. Every species has its own innate magic, separate from the kinds of magic that can be taught and learned by anyone. 

Magic that can be taught and learned falls into various traditions with very few principles in common. Some of them rely on drawing symbols and diagrams, or on writing out the effect they want to achieve. Others operate by chanting, reciting, or singing. Some combine diagrams and chanting, and so on. One of the few consistencies is that all of these kinds of magic have an element of ritual: spells take time to set up and cast, and the stronger the spell the longer and more complex the ritual is likely to be.  

Politics-wise, the boat is divided into dozens to hundreds (depending on how you count) of separate states, most of which have been to war with most of their neighbours at various points in their history. Some of those wars are ongoing as of the latest publication date. Many of the states could be described as monarchies, others as oligarchies, and there's more than one theocracy. Most polities are mixed species, although merfolk tend to do their own thing due to incompatible environmental preferences.

It seems to be relatively common for a single dragon to rule a small nation-state with a mixed population of mostly or entirely non-dragons, although humans are the most frequent rulers of mixed populations—disproportionate to their overall numbers, in both cases, if the Fallen One is counting. Places where members of the same species cluster together tend to be ruled by one (or more) of their own. Dragons ruling over dragons is, oddly, rarer, and the state that comes closest also seems to be the closest thing to a democracy described in these books. 

Interesting, that's certainly not a world-shape the Fallen One has encountered before. It's unfortunate but not unexpected given the metaphysics present that the political environment has reached this particular equilibrium.

Regardless, they'll see if they can prompt the Imp to indicate where on the map the cave system they seem to be inside of is located, and then consider the particular polities, groups, and powerful individuals that might be nearby. Do any of them have a standing relationship with the Fallen One's summoner, for example?

They are...here!

The cave is in the mountains, bordered on one side by a relatively large and stable kingdom with a human monarchy, and on the other by a sparsely-inhabited desert. It looks like Zuragazh is effectively the ruler of his own little domain here, and has been for centuries. A few other dragons have their own small territories with varying levels of independence from the crown. There are colonies of stoneborn and dreamers within the kingdom that are still subject to the king but, reading between the lines, seem to be largely self-governing in practice. 

Notable powerful individuals living in the kingdom include Malovade, a centuries-old dragon who runs a world-renowned school of wizardry and is generally considered to be one of the greatest wizards ever to live. There are also multiple religious organizations with some level of social and political power in the kingdom. It seems that many gods are worshipped alongside each other in this land, although the histories reveal some wars in the past motivated by religious differences. 

The Fallen One makes a note to send a body to meet this Malovade character, as well to the capital of the kingdom and the most major population centers of its semi-autonomous subdivisions assuming he can find the locations of these in the books, once they're free to travel. Religious groups may be relevant, but they're hesitant to make the first move with regards to them. Too powerful a stranger, bearing too incredible a gift, can create negative outcomes, or at least that is the sense the Fallen One gets. There probably isn't much explicit record of which places have the most need for their gift, the weak and the sick and the hungry are often not the most interesting populations for historiographers, but hopefully such information will be more forthcoming once they can gather it in-person.

Internally, the Fallen One will continue to construct plans for how to disseminate their gift and come to terms with the local powers and forces. Externally, they'll gesture to the imp that they've completed their reading and ask, "Would you like to play any sort of game until Zuragazh comes back?"

"Game?" it asks eagerly. "Do you know any good ones?" 

Do they? "There is a game from the place I come from, that involves shapeshifting, we could try."

It'll need some adapting, since the Fallen One's gift can't be used on others, and because they and the imp are separated by the magical barrier. After accounting for all of that, it will mostly just be a slightly more formalized version of the 'making increasing weird faces at each other' game they had played earlier, taking turns inventing tricky shapes that the other has to mimic and then add onto. It will serve as a suitable framework for the imp to experiment and more deeply integrate the shapeshifting portion of the gift, assuming it finds the game as fun as its earlier iteration.

Absolutely! The imp takes a possibly unreasonable amount of delight in coming up with sillier and sillier shapes for the Fallen One to turn into. It seems to be optimising for humour over technical difficulty. 

That's entirely fair, the Fallen One is somewhat doubtful that the imp would be able to take a form that would be beyond the Fallen One's capacity, given that they are the source of the imp's own shapeshifting (barring any innate ability to do so without their gift, at least).

When it's the Fallen One's turn to add something to the form, they'll be careful to balance what seems like it would amuse the imp, and what will (gently) push the boundaries of its displayed skill with shapeshifting and encourage it to tap into more of the gifted knowledge.