Don’t confuse Orard for the Oriad while booking your lunar passage! Orard is the entire engaldria, including everything from the northern bridge to Suthyrel down to the tip of Reskas, while the Oriad is the untamed wildland of a jungle that fills the central portion of Orard. You’ll find the Orard platforms a lot more welcoming… unless you’re in the mood to be eaten by local wildlife.


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    The dimness of the jungle was a relief after the unrelenting brightness of Veor’s deserts. As always, stepping out into the Oriad felt like coming home.


    "Looks like you were wrong." Jair watched the last light of Zelura''s transit platform disappear from the moon as it turned away from them. "No visitors today."


    "All the better. You''re not ready for him."


    Jair raised an eyebrow. "Me? I thought you were the one who was going to deal with him."


    "I''ll ensure he''s in a position for you to destroy."


    Jair pressed a hand to his forehead. "Still? Even if he chases us halfway across the world for no better reason than vengeance, and you still think his soul is worth saving?"


    "I have my rules and I will follow them. I''ll kill him as many times as you like. But that is for only one purpose."


    "Dungeons."


    "Mindless predators."


    "You think the star hydra is mindless?"


    Eythron made an angry, disgusted noise. "For the hydra, I''ll make an exception. I don''t care if it comes out and speaks, it''s still going to die."


    "You certainly are angry at this star hydra. Care to explain why?"


    Eythron looked at him for a long moment. "I need it to not exist," he said carefully. "It is anathema to me."


    "That''s not an answer."


    Eythron''s eyes flicked between Jair and Raina, then Lilin and the other Serins. "All you need to know is the objective. My reasons do not matter."


    "They do, if I''m going to use them to convince you to destroy Sekir instead of playing around with the most dangerous sorcerer in the world."


    "Oh, don''t worry," Qahrvirna interjected. "Playing around with sorcerers is my job."


    Normally, Jair would’ve put on a smile at her quip, but his heart wasn''t in it. Ever since learning she''d been an assistant in the Serin massacre, his whole relationship with her had cooled to the point of almost nonexistence. Everything he thought he''d known about her, her limits and preferences, years upon years of teasing out how far she would go and under what circumstances, all invalidated when she went blatantly against his every prediction.


    He couldn''t trust her, and worse still, he couldn''t even trust what he thought he knew about her. Either one he could deal with and move forward with her as a reliable ally. Both at once, though, made her worse than useless.


    "You''re no longer necessary, Qahri," Jair told her bluntly. "We''re back, you can head to your tower."


    "Keeping the sorcerers for yourself, I see," she pouted.


    "Don''t worry, Qahri," Lilin said, taking the vampiress by the arm. "I''ll come with you! You can show me all the recipes you were telling me about in person." She glanced back at Jair, vaguely guiltily. "You''re going to be hunting, so you won''t need me around. Right?"


    Jair''s cold gaze met Qahrvirna''s playful one. "If you allow her to be harmed in any way, I swear I''ll burn you and your tower to the ground."


    "Oh, nothing to worry about! I''ll protect her with my life. You have my oath." She raised a fist that briefly glowed with crimson light. "Lilin Welburne will be under my guardianship until such time as her brother reclaims her protection."


    Jair continued to stare at her as her smile slowly slipped. He struggled within himself, years and decades of considering her a friend and ally, warring with the knowledge that she’d been unreliable when it mattered most.


    He didn''t expect her to do anything unprovoked, but he was all kinds of twitchy now. Having someone he trusted turn on him wasn''t something he was used to having happen, especially with how few he trusted, and it threw all his beliefs in who Qahrvirna was out the window.


    He''d known her a hundred ways across countless timelines. While she was regularly surprising in a mundane way, it was always within the ''oh, of course, that''s Qahri'' way. To find her and Sekir kissing under a rock was fully believable.


    But fighting Eythron? Murdering the partygoers at the very event she was attending? That was so far out of character for her that he really struggled to integrate it into his mental map of who she was.


    Luring them off one by one and quietly assassinating them, sure. And that too was assuming if she came to the place with ill intentions, but the straightforward blatantness of it was so un-Qahri-like.


    It looked more like what would happen if Jair decided to massacre a place than what he''d expect from her.


    And going along with Sekir''s existing plan? Not changing it at all to suit her better?


    Jair hissed softly. He wished he could interrogate her about what her previous version had wanted, but Sekir had thoroughly finished what Eythron started.


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    This was her home territory. Her pride should be more than enough to keep her in line. Normally he’d be able to take her at her word for something like this. But could he rely on that?


    She respected no one, and that made it hard to keep her in line. At a certain point, when someone fully refused to bend, there was no recourse aside from violence.


    But did he really want to drag Lilin into the fight against a soul-eating monster when she seemed happy elsewhere?


    "Don''t make me come after you," Jair finally said. "I could throw you in the sea as easily as the dragon."


    Qahrvirna''s grin returned in full. "Oh, dragon! I almost forgot. Silverscale, come on out!"


    Silverscale appeared in front of them. A moment later he was joined by Lilin''s assigned dragonling.


    Jair had almost forgotten about them. Knowing that they were there to keep an eye on things was what finally allowed him to relax. He nodded. "Go ahead, Lil. Enjoy yourself. Learn well."


    "I will!" She hopped on her dragon, Qahrvirna sprawled out suggestively on Silverscale''s back, and the two of them quickly disappeared into the forest heading roughly north.


    Jair watched them a moment, then turned back to Eythron. "Where were we?"


    "No one asked you to use my morals against me," Eythron grumbled. "I''ve told you what I''ll do and won''t do. If you want to eat his soul, you''ll have to do it yourself."


    "You say that like it''s easy. I would have already if I knew how to."


    Eythron snorted. “What exactly do you think we’re here to do?” He summoned his sword and slashed at Jair''s face.


    Maelstrom appeared between them as Jair''s hand rose, the two blades locked together.


    Eythron dismissed his sword and poked one finger against the flat of Maelstrom''s blade, hard, pushing it back into Jair''s chest. "You have a mutable sword. You think I''m the only one who''ll benefit from killing the star hydra? That blade of yours should be able to reshape itself too."


    "Maelstrom isn''t stealing soul fragments to repair itself any more," Jair argued. "Its abilities are already set."


    Eythron regarded him flatly. "You expect me to believe your legendary weapon is finished growing after less than a year?"


    "Might have been more than a year. Perhaps even two." Depending on how long the times he repeated while hunting with Qahrvirna and later Eythron had been. Counting days hadn''t been the most important thing at the time.


    "I don''t care if it''s been five. You don''t seem to understand the meaning of what you''re holding. LEGENDARY, boy! This is not some simple weapon that you forge and seal and that''s the end of it. It''s not even a relic like mine, that has been imparted special capabilities through extraordinary means. It is inherently a different kind of object. It will continue to change and grow with you for as long as you live."


    "And you believe that includes eating a star hydra''s ability to bite at the soul?"


    "Why would it not?" He prodded at Maelstrom’s dark central window into the abyss, like a shard of depthless obsidian set into the blade within which the golden lines of Temporal Reversion drifted seemingly at a great distance. "This weapon has plenty of room to grow, and a star hydra is one of the highest quality upgrades you could ask for. But first, deal with that." Eythron jerked his chin toward the group of their fellow travelers. "I don''t have the patience."


    Jair turned and met the indignant and demanding stares of Stephani Serin and the rest of Raina''s extended family.


    "I hope you have a good explanation for this," she demanded, holding her skirts up to keep them from brushing the mud. "I was promised proper accommodation. I don''t see any such thing."


    Jair closed his eyes and turned back to Eythron. "How many rivers are there between here and Darsus Serin’s estate?"


    “Depends on where his estate is.”


    “Southwestern Garne, across the channel from Tolue.”


    "Eighteen," Eythron answered immediately. "Three secure, the rest forbidden."


    "Guess that means we''re taking the long way." Jair sighed, then stepped over to join the group of Serins. "Come on, let''s get you moved." He swung Maelstrom in an arc, relocating each of them to the nearest land-bridge with a quick flash of Darkflame.


    The next several minutes were spent darkflaming the group through each leg of the winding land routes that connected the inner Oriad to the outer continents of Orard where more civilized cities could be found. Since Jair couldn’t safely darkflame across water without being grabbed, it made for a very convoluted and lengthy procedure despite his best efforts at keeping everyone together and moving rapidly.


    If it’d been anywhere else, he would have had to do the trip in much smaller pieces still, but the one thing you absolutely had to keep memorized in the Oriad was where rivers were hiding and which ones were safe and what angles to move past them at.


    Darsus’ estate ended up being a large manor right in Garne’s capital. It would be an entirely extravagant venue for their Solaria, and one which he seemed simultaneously proud to show off and irritated at having to share.


    Regardless of its owner’s mixed emotions, Jair dropped them off at the front door and turned to go.


    "Do you want to stay with them, or stay with us?" Jair asked Raina before they left Ajriol and the rest of the Serins to their own devices.


    "As much as I appreciate the event that is Solaria, I think I''ve been to enough family parties for a while." She didn''t let go of his hand. "Let''s go hunting for monsters."


    “Good enough for me.”


    The return trip was almost instantaneous; transporting himself and Raina through the maze that was the rivers of the Oriad until they were back at the transit platform and rejoined the others for the walk to Eythron’s nearest hideout.


    "I think there has been some kind of misunderstanding," Uqiar said, sidling up to Jair as they walked. He kept his voice low and walked more slowly, so that they fell back behind the rest of the group. "I believe your sword has malfunctioned. Or something else has gone wrong."


    "We''re here fine, aren''t we?"


    The massive beastkin let out a rumble of a growl that still set Jair''s instincts on edge. "He does not remember the previous version of our day."


    "Yeah, I know that. We already talked about it when we first..." Jair paused and turned to face the beastkin fully. "How do you know that?"


    "You both told me everything so I could bring him back into knowledge if something went wrong. But I do not know what has gone wrong. Was there an additional loop where he died without me?"


    Jair frowned. He held up a finger for quiet and mentally replayed the relevant events. Things did tend to blur together when reliving the same events, but they were recent enough to almost be able to trust his recollections. "No," he said finally. "He wasn''t. Remind me, what exactly do you remember?"


    Eythron called out to see if they were coming, and Uqiar shouted back that he knew the way. Eythron took that as good enough, and he continued on. Raina hung back, not coming close enough to intrude on Jair''s conversation but lingering nearby.


    Uqiar went on to recite the events from the previous loop where he''d been initially brought in. They were surprisingly accurate, with a slight skew that was only natural for the cultural and personal differences between them.


    "He was not well before we reverted," Uqiar concluded. "Not acting like himself. I am concerned."


    "Quantity," Jair whispered. Suddenly, the whole past loop rearranged itself in his perception. He laughed and clapped Uqiar on one black-furred arm. "Thank you. You''re absolutely right. Something did go wrong, but it wasn''t on my end. Come on!" He took off running after Eythron.


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